Recruitment fees continue to bury OFWs in debt –ADB report

Recruitment fees continue to burden overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) before and after their deployment, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released in February.
The report, cited by GMA News' Marisol Abdurahman in her report on "24 Oras" on Friday, said OFWs suffer heavy salary cuts and direct payments, or take "large loans requiring repayment at high interest rates," due to these "excessive" recruitment fees.
Titled "Safeguarding the Rights of Asian Migrant Workers from Home to the Workplace," the report said the Philippines' current laws have loopholes that are being exploited by recruiters to inflate recruitment fees.
"Existing legislation is often inadequate or has loopholes that raise migration costs. Most Asian migration legislation, including that of the Philippines as an example, allows for levying of fees by private employment agencies," the ADB report said.
Lawyer Aristodes Ruaro, deputy administrator of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), admitted that existing laws allow for the charging of recruitment fees.
However, he said only skilled workers can be charged under Republic Act 10022 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.
"Under our rules, under the law, our recruitment agencies are only allowed to collect from skilled workers," Ruaro said.
Some countries forbid the collection of any form of recruitment fees, among them the United States of America under H2B visas, United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.
Ruaro said they are studying possible amendments to the POEA law and how they could enforce the law to avoid further abuse of OFWs.
"We are very strict with imposing our rules," he said.
Prospective OFWs were urged to report all erring recruitment agencies to the POEA.
"They can be subjected to cancellation of their license," Ruaro said.
The POEA receives an average of 30 to 50 complainants or sometimes 70 at their legal assistance division. About 60 percent of complaints are due to overcharging or problems with recruitment fees, the report said. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more