Blacklisted job recruiters
DROWNED by the furor created by the rising prices of goods and services is news that the Department of Migrant Workers will soon publish the list of blacklisted recruitment agencies.
Described as “timely” by some quarters, including families of migrant workers, the decision is designed to protect the millions of Filipinos seeking employment in foreign lands.
Starting next week, the new department, which is headed by Secretary Susan “Toots”Ople, will come out with the names of blacklisted local and foreign-owned recruitment agencies.
It is among the “stricter measures” crafted by the government amid the continued presence of unscrupulous job recruiters and abusive employers in manpower-importing countries.
The other measures include the performance review of government accredited and licensed recruitment agencies and their foreign counterparts.
Mostly victims of illegal recruitment and heartless foreign employers, some overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) often find themselves languishing in crowded foreign detention cells.
And others, many of them female domestic helpers (DHs) and caregivers, are forced to return to the Philippines penniless and battered after escaping from their foreign employers.
“May mga gingagawa pang ‘sex slaves’ ng mga among lalake at iba pang mga kaanak,” lamented an rate daughter of a domestic helper in the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
What is needed is for our OFWs and their relatives in the Philippines to report to concerned authorities the nefarious activities of sweet-talking illegal recruiters and human traffickers.
This, if we want to rid the country’s dollar-oriented manpower export industry of “rotten eggs.”
