POEA warns against overseas jobs via ‘southern backdoor’

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration advised  would-be overseas Filipino workers to reject or at least be careful about job offers that require them to leave for abroad through the country’s “southern backdoor.”

POEA Administrator Hans Cacdac said the exit points in the southern parts of the country were the favorite routes used by human traffickers to smuggle out their victims.

“From the southernmost parts of Mindanao and Palawan, traveling by sea to Malaysia is the more convenient way for a human trafficker to move its victims to their final country of destination,” Cacdac said.

He said workers who use the “southern backdoor” usually end up either stranded and without work in a foreign country, or are forced to accept low-paying household jobs, or as farm hands on remote plantations, or in establishments used as fronts for prostitution.

Cacdac said human traffickers use these southern exit points to deploy workers without proper work documents to countries such as Malaysia, South Korea, China, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, and other Middle East countries.

Recently, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Kuala Lumpur reported that five Filipino women were being held in a night club in Malaysia controlled by a large syndicate involved in human trafficking for prostitution, Cacdac said.

The syndicate reportedly transported the victims through the Zamboanga-Sandakan-Kota Kinabalu-Johor Bahru route, he added.

Cacdac said recent studies on human trafficking in the Philippines also indicated that most of the victims were travelers deceived by their recruiters about their real jobs or the conditions of their employment overseas.

“Hence, I would advise aspiring OFWs to be doubtful when recruiters offer Mindanao and Palawan as exit points. Please be very, very careful and always check whether the recruiter, foreign employer, and the job order are in POEA records,” Cacdac said.