POEA to probe illegal deployment

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Published : Monday, March 05, 2012 00:00

Article Views : 94

Written by : Lee Ann P. Ducusin

THE recruitment industry yesterday urged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration governing board to investigate and penalized heavily all agencies who participated in the illegal deployment of household service workers to banned countries Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Recruitment and migration expert Lito Soriano disclosed that large numbers of overseas Filipino workers in Syria close to 5,000 in Jordan and almost 50,000 domestic helpers in Lebanon were processed by licensed agencies in the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 with the use  of “repro orders.” Upon arrival in Dubai the OFWs were taken to those banned countries in the region.

Soriano cited a 62% increase deployment  to UAE more especially to Dubai from 120,657 in 2007 to 193,810 in 2008, 196,818 in 2009 and 201,214 in 2010 despite the world-wide recession in 2008 which dried up jobs in Dubai and caused the once-thriving financial center to borrow funds from Abu Dabi to prevent bankruptcy.  

“This illegal activity continues up to the present as Filipino maids continue to arrive in Syria despite the violent situation in some parts of the country. Licensed agencies used their job orders to bring the household service workers to Dubai where illegal recruitment syndicates trafficked the OFWs to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria added Soriano, “ he said.

Soriano said the POEA governing board should investigate these illegal recruitment activities and immediately cancel the licenses of these agencies many are mostly foreign-owned and with Arabic sounding names who flaunt with Philippine laws.

He said that in his latest visit to the Middle East, labor attaches confirmed his theory since business activities in the region continue to be flat and the findings of the labor attaches through their own investigation affirmed that these domestic helpers were trafficked to those countries in the past years and continue up to the present.

He further urged the POEA to overhaul the data gathering in segregating new hires from re-hires as more often re-hires who take semi-annually vacations are counted twice increasing the number of total OFWs deployed for the year giving the impression a rise in deployment of OFWS amidst persistent economic woes in many parts of the world even in the Middle East.