POEA warns OFWs vs illegal recruiters
By Mayen Jaymalin and Sandy Araneta | February 27, 2009 | www.philstar.com
MANILA, Philippines --- Filipino nurses and other Filipino professionals
aspiring to work in the United Kingdom take a heed.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration yesterday warned against illegal recruiters offering jobs in the UK.
“Be wary of the ploy of some illegal recruiters luring nurses and other professionals to go to London on a student visa,” POEA chief Jennifer Manalili said. Manalili said they have received information that Filipinos-based in London are recruiting Filipino nurses and promising them jobs in nursing homes in UK while studying.
“The illegal recruiters promise them that they would study and at the same time work in nursing homes for 20 hours as part of their curriculum,” Manalili said.
According to Manalili, the Philippine embassy in London reported that 34 Filipino “student nurses” have been victimized by these recruiters. She said police authorities raided the school for failure to open the courses offered to the students.
Manalili said those arrested were supposed to be attending the London School of Health & Management Studies after paying their recruiters as much as £3,500 or some $7,000 for tuition and student visa fees. The victims also paid additional £150 for transportation expenses upon arrival in the United Kingdom, Manalili added.
Earlier, it has reported that around 500 Filipino nurses both board-passers and underboard have left for the UK under the study and work program since 2007. But to avoid illegal recruiters, Manalili advised aspiring OFWs to verify with the POEA the authenticity of jobs and employment contracts being offered to them.
Yesterday, the POEA offered hundreds of overseas jobs for Filipino jobseekers aspiring to work abroad and those who were displaced by the global financial crisis.
Manalili said about 400,000 job orders from various countries abroad are awaiting to be filled this year.
Majority of the available jobs are in Middle East countries, which are now in need of engineers and other construction workers as well as nurses and other professionals.
Labor officials said it takes a long time to fill up the job orders due to lack of qualified applicants.
In a related development three persons were charged Tuesday with large-scale illegal recruitment and estafa before the Manila regional trial court after they duped eight victims into giving them almost a million pesos as placement fees but failing to deploy for work abroad.
Charged with two counts of illegal recruitment and eight counts of estafa were Eric Credo, Sonia Jocom Paraiso, and Loverboy Piana. They are all at large.
Assistant City Prosecutor Erlinda Lim, who filed the case in court, recommended no bail for all the accused for the two large-scale illegal recruitment charges. For the eight estafa charges, the Manila Prosecutor’s Office recommended for each of the accused bail at a total of P258,000.
The victims were identified as Felipe Panelo Buenaventura, Regineil Rubiato, Rajileta Fernandez, Mary Ann Morillo, Arnie de la Cruz, Rhea Panes, Marlon Edquibal, and Christopher Jones Sumalpong.
