By Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:07 am | Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
The frequent offloading at the country’s airports of overseas
Filipino workers (OFWs) suspected of being undocumented recruits or
trafficking victims is turning off foreign employers to the point that
they have stopped hiring Filipinos and have turned to other countries
for their labor needs, according to a recruitment consultant.
Outbound legitimate OFWs have complained about being unable to leave
after being offloaded on mere suspicion that they were illegal by
“unscrupulous” immigration agents at the Ninoy Aquino International
Airport (Naia) and the country’s other international airports, said
Emmanuel Geslani.
He said the latest incident involved a domestic helper working at the
household of the Sultan of Johore in Malaysia. The sultan, who visited
Manila last April, is a friend of President Benigno Aquino III and his
family.
“Despite the overseas employment certificate issued by the Philippine
Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) main office, the household
service worker was offloaded and not allowed to board her flight for
Singapore,” Geslani said.
Berated
The case of the domestic helper, who was identified only as
“Lilibeth,” was reported to the POEA home office by the Philippine labor
attache to Malaysia, Rey Sto. Domingo.
According to Geslani, Sto. Domingo was berated by the Sultan’s wife
for the failure of her Filipino helper to return and for her
“unjustified offloading.”
He said various recruitment agencies have reported similar cases of
domestics with valid overseas employment certificates (OECs) bound for
the Middle East but offloaded “for various flimsy reasons or simply
profiled to be victims of human trafficking by BI [Bureau of
Immigration] agents.”
“It’s economic losses for the passengers since they have to pay the
travel tax of P1,620 and airport fees of P750 every time they leave for
their destinations,” Geslani said.
He pointed out that the Labor and Assistance Center was
re-established by POEA at the Naia early this year to validate all
travel documents of OFWs processed by the agency and who are holding
OECs.
“So there is no valid or justifiable reason for the BI to withhold
the departure of OFWs except to harass or extort money,” he said.
The consultant said OFWs bound for United States military facilities
in Afghanistan and Iraq were also victims of “unscrupulous” BI agents
who allegedly forced the OFWs to shell out amounts ranging from P30,000
to P50,000.
According to Geslani, with the lifting of the labor deployment ban to
US facilities in Afghanistan, OFWs from there are coming home in droves
to take overdue vacations, only to be victimized by airport immigration
agents on their return.
“The BI has not stopped harassing the OFWs even if they are allowed
to come back to the country and be processed at the POEA as legitimate
workers,” he said.
Geslani explained that when the OFWs return to Afghanistan, they have
to go by way of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. However, some of the
OFWs are not allowed to board their flights at Naia because they did
not have visas for Dubai.
No visa needed
He said the workers do not need a Dubai visa as they are just
transiting through the Dubai airport to take commercial flights for the
Kandahar and Bagram airfields in Afghanistan.
“Their maximum stay inside [Dubai airport’s] Terminal 2 is anywhere
from three to four hours while waiting for their flights to
Afghanistan,” said Geslani.
Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, a former immigration
commissioner, has filed a resolution to look into the mounting
complaints of abuses by immigration agents. The hearing is set to be
held this month.
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