Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reiterates her warning to jobseekers and prospective OFWs to deal only with licensed recruitment agencies and NOT to accept tourist visas to avoid illegal recruitment.

POEA continues to receive reports from the country’s diplomatic offices and labor attachés on the incidence of OFWs in various destination countries victimized by unscrupulous recruiters.

Administrator Baldoz said that these victims share something in common -- they were all able to leave the country and were deployed abroad undocumented by the POEA, without POEA-approved contracts and using tourist visas. The reports disclosed that 350 cases of illegally recruited OFWs were monitored in Lebanon and Syria, 20 cases in Brunei and 51 cases in Korea. In addition, an unspecified number were also reported in the United States, Italy and Palau.

Before the civil strife in Haiti, a growing number of OFWs arrived in that country without valid contracts. These workers applied as tourists believing that upon arrival in Haiti, they could apply for a visa to the United States. What happened was that they were unable to get a visa to the United States. They opted to stay and work illegally in Haiti receiving below the minimum wages. Since these workers are undocumented, they fall outside the government’s OFW assistance programs.