DFA to OFWs: Deal only with licensed firms

CEBU CITY - Applicants for work abroad must see to it that the recruitment agency they are dealing with is accredited by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration so their rights could be protected.

This was the advice of April Liong, in-charge for Assistance of National Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs during a labor forum at the University of Cebu Maritime Education and Training Center (UC-METC) yesterday.

Liong discussed matters protecting the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in a forum.

She said jobseekers for abroad continue to fall victim to illegal recruiters.

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“Illegal recruitment shall mean any act of canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring and procuring workers that include contract promising or advertising for employment abroad, whether for profit or not, when undertaken by a non-licensed or non-holder of authority" Liong said.

She said trafficking of OFWs is rampant.

Female applicants are promised jobs as entertainers but end up as commercial sex workers. Others are sent to other countries as tourists with a promise that jobs await them there when in fact there is none.

Future

“That’s human trafficking that will cost you money and your future, especially if you are imprisoned in other countries," Liong said.

There is also a total ban on deployment of OFWs to Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Nigeria because of the violence there, she told the audience.

“The government in the pursuit of national interest or when the public welfare so requires, can anytime terminate or impose ban on the deployment of migrant workers," Liong said.

Big salaries

But she there are many OFWs who insist on going to these places because of the big salaries there, she said.

Liong said that if an OFW is not paid the right salary stated in the contract, he can seek assistance from the Philippine Embassy or consulate in that country.

But if he has been repatriated without his salary, he can file a case against his foreign employer and his recruiter with the National Labor Relations Commission.

Katrina Coloso, chairperson of the College Editor’s Guild of the Philippines, said the People’s Globalization Awareness Initiative Network and the UC-METC Anchor student publication organized the forum with theme: “Abroad na! Saan ka pa? A forum on Filipino Labor Migration in a Globalized World". - Sun.Star

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