Immigration chief warns OFWs against third-country recruitment
By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
THE BUREAU of Immigration (BI) warned the public on Sunday against a recruitment scheme that would transfer overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) with expired visas and employment contracts to employers in a third country without proper documents.
“While third-party recruitment is beyond the scope of the BI, we deem it necessary to share to the public stories we encounter at the airport, as we are the first to hear about this back in the Philippines, Immigration Commissioner Norman G. Tansingco said in a statement.
The immigration bureau cited a case of four Hong-Kong-based OFWs who were recruited to work in Russia after their previous employment contracts expired.
The BI warned that such a move is risky for OFWs since they open themselves to dangerous consequences. “OFWs should protect themselves from exploitation by ensuring proper documentation when they work abroad,” said Mr. Tansingco.
Toby Nebrida, who heads the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Strategic Communications Office, confirmed in a Viber message that the DMW Migrant Workers Protection Bureau has received reports of third-country recruitment.
Mr. Nebrida assured that the DMW was “on top of that particular concern.”
In May, the BI inked an agreement with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas to develop a streamlined government information system to combat illegal recruitment.
The immigration bureau said the system seeks to monitor and act on irregular migration incidents in the Philippines while generating accurate data on migration.
In the first two months of the year, 57 departures from the country’s international airports were tagged as possible cases of human trafficking, based on data from the BI during the period.
