The Bureau of Immigration will implement a strict monitoring and screening on overseas Filipino workers bound for Dubai, UAE.
This, as immigration officials found out that the emirate is being used by illegal recruiters as transit point for Filipinos being illegally deployed to Iraq.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente said, “Immigration officers are directed to exercise extra vigilance in clearing the departure of Filipino travelers bound for Dubai, particularly those who are departing as tourists, and make sure that they are not going to other foreign destinations in order to work.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) flagged the attention of the immigration bureau on a number of recruiters to Iraq on social media.
The immigration bureau was able get a copy of the list of names of some OFWs who were allegedly recruited to Baghdad as restaurant workers. None in the list was able to leave the country, the immigration bureau said.
“These illegal recruiters will sweet-talk their victims, encouraging them to take the job offers while the costs will be deducted from their salaries,” BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina said. “When they get to their worksites, many are enslaved, given meager salaries, and made to work more than they supposed to in order to pay off their alleged debt.”
