MANILA, Philippines - A recruitment agency in the Philippines and its counterpart in Israel are charging Filipino domestic workers higher than what is allowed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), an alliance of Filipino workers’ organizations in the Middle East said on Tuesday.
John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of Migrante in the Middle East, said his group has been receiving reports from its chapters about violations of the POEA Guidelines on the implementation of Reform Package Affecting Household Service Workers (HSWs).
The package stipulates that HSWs should not be made to pay any placement fee.
“We have been receiving several complaints from OFWs deployed as caregivers in Israel manifesting that their recruitment agencies in the Philippines in connivance with its local counterpart has allegedly charged them a huge placement fee, some were asked to provide US$3,000 while others US$6,000," said Monterona.
Monterona said the charging of placement fees for HSWs, which include domestic helpers, caregivers and caretakers, is in violation of the POEA Guidelines issued December 16, 2006 by the POEA Governing Board.
“OFWs complaining of overcharging, almost everyday, is expected - because the POEA, under the Arroyo administration, has already been transformed from a regulatory body now a mere marketing agency looking for new labor markets to continuously sold cheap our human labor abroad," Monterona added.
Monterona said the numerous complaints of overcharging from OFW victims are a manifestation that the POEA could not anymore exercise its regulatory function over recruitment agencies because side by side with recruitment agencies, it is also now at the forefront of promoting in an intensified scale of exporting human labor at the expense of OFWs rights, welfare, and their wellbeing.
Monterona added that the complaining deployed caregivers in Israel, who have requested their name be withheld, manifested that a recruitment agency named Uniwide Technical Services Incorporated with office located in Pasay City allegedly charged some of them an amount of $3000, and to some $6,000 as placement fee. They are only receiving a monthly salary of $800.
“If the applicant does not have the said amount, the agency’s counterpart in Israel would usually offer a loan with 5% interest on top of the placement fee being asked by the recruitment agency," Monterona added quoting the complaining caregivers.
Monterona said what is alarming is the information disclosed by the complaining caregivers that upon their arrival in Israel, they were given a short briefing conducted by Philippine Embassy officials and were told not to tell with anybody how much they have paid their agency in the Philippines.
“With this revelation, it appears that the Philippine Embassy in Israel is acting as accomplice to the crime perpetrated by recruitment agencies in the Philippines in cahoots with counterpart local recruiters in Israel by illegally charging a placement fee to deployed HSWs mostly working as caregivers," Monterona said.
He said Migrante-ME will formally send a letter to the Philippine Congress concerned committees to conduct an investigation unto this matter as his group could not allow this illegal imposition of charges to OFWs by some unscrupulous recruitment agencies and to continuously victimizing OFWs and aspiring alike.
Migrante-ME called on the attention of the POEA to summon and investigate camps suspend its license once it is proven violating POEA’s no-placement fee policy for HSWs; and for the Department of Foreign Affairs to investigate its officials in Israel who seems to have given their permission by not doing anything but instead covering up this illegal imposition of huge placement fees.
“These are the very government agencies, mandated by law and thus duty-bound, which should be at the forefront advancing and protecting OFWs rights and interests, but look what these government agencies are doing?" Monterona ended.(- b>-- D'Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV