The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) warns the public of Filipino nationals who are operating a recruitment network in Pampanga and Pasay City in the Philippines, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Erbil in Iraq and are offering vacancies abroad for household service workers (HSWs).
This warning is issued after eight more trafficking victims are secured by the Philippine Embassy in Bagdad last month and are now being deported to the Philippines.
According to the official statements gathered by DFA from trafficking victims from July 2018 to March 2019, these recruiters will usually offer jobs in Dubai, Turkey or European cities promising applicants that their visas to these cities will be available during their transit in Iraq.
Earlier this year a trafficking victim detained at Basra Prison was finally released for deportation but only after three months of detention for visa violations. She came to Iraq using a Kurdistan visit visa which was not valid for her stay in Basra from July 2018.
Filipinos who are residing, working, or vacationing in Iraq are advised to take note that their Kurdistan visas will not be valid in Baghdad, Basra or other provinces in Iraq outside of the Kurdistan provinces of Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah.
The DFA warns the Filipino traveling public that Iraq imposes imprisonment and hefty penalties for persons without the proper visas or with expired visas.
Filipinos who encounter job offers abroad especially vacancies for household service workers are reminded of the early warning signs of fraud namely: (1) applicants are not provided copies of their visas to the intended destination; (2) vague information regarding the nature and conditions of the work offered by the recruitment agency; (3) applicants is not in control of their own identification documents such as IDs or passport, and is advised to claim to authorities that he or she is just a tourist visiting a particular city; (4) the agency has no permanent address, and their agents do not reveal their full names and contact details, applicants are advised of particular immigration lanes to choose during departure from the Philippines, and; (5) they are told that there is no Philippine Embassy in Iraq and applicants must coordinate with particular individuals in case of emergencies.
The DFA advised Filipinos who want to work abroad to first check job offers with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and of POEA Governing Board Resolution No. 06, series of 2018 which maintains the suspension on the processing and deployment of new hires to Iraq. As per said POEA GBR, returning workers are exempt from the deployment ban except HSWs.
Source: DFA
