Recruiters to Syria may be sued—POEA

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is looking into the possible suspension or cancellation of the licenses of three recruitment agencies that dispatched workers to Syria and failed to provide decent jobs for the recruits.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel forum on Monday, POEA Administrator Hans Cacdac said the suit against the recruitment agencies would be in the form of administrative cases for violation of recruitment policies, particularly the working conditions the recruited workers were exposed to and their failure to assist in the government’s repatriation efforts.

“These are still being looked into,” Cacdac said. “The case that we will be filing is of our own initiative.”

He said that should there be probable criminal liability, the case would be endorsed to the justice department.

Cacdac pointed out, however, that the workers were recruited legally, as they were signed up by the agencies before the travel ban to Syria was implemented in August last year.

But none of the recruitment agencies helped in repatriating the workers they had sent to Syria, he said. Jeannette I. Andrade