POEA suspends 3 recruitment agencies

Philippine Overseas Labor Employment office. Photo from www.poea.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) has suspended three recruitment agencies after they were found to be illegally hiring Filipinos and deploying them to a different country than the one they applied for.

Empleos Incorporated, Nahed International Manpower Services and Ridzkey Human Resources International Services have been suspended after they were found to be processing papers of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for the United Arab Emirates (UAE)but transferring them to Jordan upon arrival there.

“The scheme employed by the respondents is a prima facie case of trafficking-in-persons considering the fact that the workers were officially processed for UAE but they were deployed instead to employers in Jordan that are not accredited or registered with the POEA,” Hans Leo Cacdac, POEA Administrator said in a statement Monday.

“The POEA motu propio filed administrative complaints against the three agencies after receiving memos from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Jordan requesting assistance for immediate repatriation of OFWs deployed by the agencies,” Cacdac said.

The OFWs escaped from their employers and had requested for immediate repatriation but the recruitment agencies did not comply.

A preventive suspension order has been issued against the three agencies and they were also ordered to be included in POEA’s list of agencies disqualified to recruit and deploy OFWs while an investigation was ongoing.

POEA said that the OFWs in Jordan are staying at the Filipino Workers Resource Center in the capital city of Amman.

UAE has the second highest number of OFW deployment with 259,546 new hires and rehires in 2012, according to records of the POEA.

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