Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) warned Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) about recruitment agencies that are still operating despite having their license suspended or canceled.

The POEA has cancelled licenses of 451 recruitment agencies and places 44 others under suspension.

From 2008 to 2009 alone, POEA had cancelled 74 operating and suspended or fined 22 agencies due to recruitment violations.

On the other hand, based on statistics supplied by the non-government organization Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (Ideals), there were 1,662 confirmed victims of illegal recruitment from January to November 2008, an increase of four percent from 1,539 during the same period in 2007.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa of the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment (Tfair) named the suspected illegal recruiters with the most number of warrant of arrest.

“Atleast 276 Filipinos have a total of more than 20,000 un-served warrants of arrest for large-scale illegal recruitment,” Sosa told GMANews.tv

“Of the 276 suspects, 68 have double digit warrants of arrests,” he added.

Sosa later confirmed that the numbers of suspected illegal recruiters were narrowed down after the back-to-back entrapment operations. However, the public particularly the OFWs are still warned about other illegal recruiters that have not yet caught.

Sosa says that they are planning to come up with a list of 50 most wanted persons in large-scale illegal recruitment and seek public help to caught them.

Here is the list of wanted illegal recruiters with the most number of warrants of arrest:

1. Harleta Velasco (134)

2. Rosemarie Liwanag (82)

3. Maricar Inovero (79)

4. Corazon Ventura (48)

5. Amelia Gabriel (29)

6. Beverly Tuazon (27)

7. Maria Harleta Velasco (27) - suspected to be the same recruiter with the most number of arrests

8. Aminola Camarudin (24)

9. Marissa Biyalat (24).

If you have been approach by the people who are names above or any illegal recruiter, just contact POEA hotline at 722-1144 or 722-1155 for immediate.

To see the list of recruitment agencies that has been cancelled or suspended by the POEA just click here.