The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) warned Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) jobseekers on illegal recruitments online.
This includes recruiters in social media sites who are demanding placement fees to process documents and start job interviews for OFWs in order to land a job abroad.
DMW Undersecretary for Policy and International Cooperation Patricia Yvonne Caunan stressed that illegal recruitment nowadays is rampant in social media sites.
“Every day illegal recruiters not only in the Philippines but also abroad are trying to recruit online and every day we are filing cases and requesting sites such as Meta and Tiktok to take down advertisements of these recruiters who are not following the law,” Caunan said.
Apart from this, DMW engages in bilateral partnerships with various countries to introduce the 50-year old framework of the country for hiring Filipino workers.
“We strive to have bilateral labor agreements with different countries to protect the Filipino workers who are already there and who are planning to go there…The fight against illegal recruitment and human trafficking is not a local problem, it is a problem that can be solved by bilateral cooperation and multilateral engagements,” Caunan added.
In the agreement of the Philippines with other countries, OFWs who shall work in their country are not required to show money and pay any amount to be hired for a job.
To browse legitimate jobs abroad, existing and aspiring OFWs may visit dmw.gov.ph for a list of approved job orders.
DMW, through its Migrant Workers Protection Bureau, conducts seminars on Anti-Illegal Recruitment and Trafficking in Person to disseminate the ways illegal recruiters scam OFWs.
About 150 OFWs and their families, Public Employment Service Office managers, and police officers participated in the seminar during the second day of the pilot OFW Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Caravan which was held in Tarlac. (CLJD/GLSB, PIA Region 3-Tarlac)