DMW logs 150 complaints from seasonal workers in South Korea ---- By GISELLE OMBAY, GMA Integrated News

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Monday said they have received around 150 complaints from the Filipinos employed under the seasonal workers program in South Korea since 2022. In a press briefing, DMW officer-in-charge Hans Leo Cacdac said that there were 3,353 Filipino seasonal workers in South Korea as of December 2023. Their deployments began in 2022 under the program which allows short-term employment of foreign agricultural workers to address the chronic labor shortages during the peak planting and harvesting season in South Korea. “Over the period of time since the deployments began in 2022, we have received a number of complaints from the workers. Around 150 or so are the registered complaints by our migrant workers office in Seoul,” Cacdac said. “[The complaints are] exacting fees, legal deductions from wages, and cases even of involvement of brokers or intermediaries in recruitment both in Korea and here in the Philippines charging fees or exorbitant amounts of money,” he added. Cacdac said they also recorded five cases of physical abuse, five medical cases, and four natural deaths of Filipinos in South Korea in the span of two years. Following this, he said the DMW issued in January 2024 a moratorium on the deployment of seasonal workers, which arrangement is made directly between the Philippine and South Korea local government units. To address the situation, Cacdac said the DMW is set to issue permanent guidelines for the deployment of Filipino seasonal workers which would cover their standards of protection, fair treatment, decent working hours and wages, access to justice, and the monitoring and prohibition against exorbitant fees. “These guidelines are forthcoming. We’re slated to meet with the (Republic of Korea) Ministry of Justice soon, and we’re hoping na at the very latest to have these guidelines issued by next week,” he said. In November 2023, the DMW, along with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) started creating a joint circular that would contain directives and rules for seasonal worker arrangements. The creation of the circular was prompted by a wide variety of complaints from seasonal overseas Filipino workers in South Korea.—RF, GMA Integrated 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