DESPITE the government’s intensified campasign against illegal recruitment, the problem remains a major headache in this major manpower-exporting Southeast Asian nation.

But blame the problem partly on the “willingness” of some overseas jobseekers, including women, to deal with “illegal recruiters.”

This is understandable because of the low pay of workers in the country, forcing even college graduates to seek employment abroad.

But the problem is we often hear reports of some victims of illegal recruiters returning home “battered, sick, penniless and even raped.”

That’s why we commend the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for arresting an alleged illegal recruiter at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga on April 26.

The alleged recruiter, a woman, was escorting her eight victims, who posed as “pilgrims” to Israel, when arrested by immigration authorities.

The victims later admitted that they will work as hospital and hotel cleaners upon their arrival in Israel, with a promised monthly salary of P60,000 to P80,000.

Recently, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) restricted the deployment of Filipinno workers to the Middle East country.

Only returning migrant workers with existing employment contracts are allowed to go back to their destinations in Israel.

The suspect will be charged with large scale illegal recruitment, while the victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.

Let’s provide our people with enough high-paying jobs if we are to succeed in convincing them to just work in the country.

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