DON’T welcome job recruiters who come knocking on your door.

This was the warning issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) following reports of illegal job recruiters who go on house-to-house calls.

Nonette Villanueva, POEA chief for Luzon, said these recruiters usually promise jobs in Singapore, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon which are non-existent.

“Huwag mag-apply doon sa mga nagbabahay-bahay,” Villanueva stressed during the KBP Forum Thursday.

She said the modus operandi of the illegal recruiters is to send off recruits as tourists with promises for jobs upon reaching their country destinations only to find out there are no jobs waiting or worse, the women recruits are trapped in white slavery.

Villanueva said legitimate recruitment for job overseas are done only either at the public employment service offices (PESO) being run by local government agencies or at the field offices of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

She also clarified that there is no agency recruiting for workers in South Korea as recruitment is only done online through the POEA website.

For Guam, job opportunities will only open in the third quarter of the year.

The POEA official also cautioned applicants to check and verify with the POEA or DOLE supposed job openings in Canada and the United Kingdom.

“Kung may link na sinasabing puntahan doon sa website, mag-ingat kayo malamang walang existing job orders doon,” she pointed out.

At the same time, Villanueva noted that while illegal recruitment cases have gone down by about 50 percent, still more are being lured by false promises.

“Pero meron pa ring nabibiktima,” she said.

Illegal recruiters charge as much as P80,000 to P150,000 for an alleged job in Singapore, she disclosed.

OFWS IN EGYPT

Meanwhile, Villanueava also announced that the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has adopted voluntary repatriation for Filipinos working in Egypt.

She said her office processed 24 job workers for Egypt, seven of whom are from Pangasinan, 13 from La Union, and one each from Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Nueva Ecija and Olongapo City.

She said there could be more from the region who could not be accounted for because they were who were illegally recruited. (PIA Pangasinan)

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