5,000 OFWs in dire straits in Russia
Labor Attache Jalilo Dela Torre
THERE are around 5,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), mostly from Hong Kong, who are in dire straits in Russia after the job offers made to them turned out to be empty promises, Labour Attache Jalilo Dela Torre said.
Dela Torre, head of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO), said they were also investigating reports that one of the employment agencies raided last year by the Hong Kong police was harassing the family of one of the workers.
“The worker is still in Russia but her family in the Philippines is being harassed because she supposedly hasn’t paid the agency,” Dela Torre said in an interview.
“But she had already shelled outP225,000 and they already have the deed of sale or title of her family’s property,” he added.
Dela Torre said the worker was one of around 5,000 OFWs who went to Russia in search of better jobs but ended up in a worse situation.
“There were really no jobs waiting for them there. The agencies that sent them there were just recruiting and deploying but there was no placement. And so, the OFWs themselves had to look for a job when they got there,” he said.
“And even when they find a job with good pay, they discover that their living expenses are also high. There’s no ‘live-in’ there,” he added, referring to the Hong Kong government requirement that foreign domestic workers live with their employers.
Dela Torre said the OFWs could be found all over Russia but most of them were in Moscow. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) earlier warned Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong to be wary of job offers to Russia and three other countries.
In a statement, the POEA said it received reports that Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Cyprus were falling victim to fake job offers in the United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, Turkey, and Russia.
“The POEA has received reports of Filipino household service workers (HSWs) in Hong Kong, Singapore and Cyprus who were lured into transferring to another country like Dubai, Mongolia, Turkey and Russia but later found out the conditions of employment to be least ideal or worse, the offered jobs are non-existent,” the POEA said.
“The recruiters are mostly nationals of the third country who have Filipino partners in their illegal activities,” it added.
The POEA said workers who fell victim to the scam paid exorbitant fees “just to travel to the third country” using a tourist visa and “even without assurance of employers waiting for them.”
“The reports also said those who found employment are sometimes abused by the employers, and for lack of proper work documents, the hapless workers were arrested and deported by immigration authorities,” the POEA said.
It reminded OFWs that recruitment through a third country is considered illegal if “neither the recruiter nor the employer has proper authorization from the Philippine government.”
For their own protection, applicants of overseas job offers should have the appropriate work permit, visa, or employment contract approved by the POLO and processed by the POEA before they leave the Philippines.