New tack vs illegal recruiters: Seek their relatives

MANILA, Philippines — Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has suggested a new way to address trafficking of Filipino migrant workers: Seek the families of illegal recruiters.

On Twitter, Locsin recommended asking families of illegal recruiters to appeal to their relatives to stop trafficking fellow Filipinos to countries such as Iraq, where a deployment ban is currently in effect.

“Don’t these recruiters have family back in the Philippines? Perhaps we can appeal to their families to appeal to their asshole relatives in Dubai to stop. Appeals to conscience,” he wrote. “Do they have government connections?”

Locsin on Friday had an exchange with DFA assistant secretary Elmer Cato on the issue of human trafficking, particularly in Iraq.

He asked Cato how Filipinos were trafficked as far as Kurdistan, which is located in northern Iraq and has been a flashpoint of conflict in the region.

Cato explained that Filipinos began going to Kurdistan when it started to boom in the 2000s. 

“The first Filipinos there then started inviting their families and friends to work in Erbil and other places until some thought of making money out of it,” Cato said.

“Before long, we had as many as 3,000 OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok who managed to enter Kurdistan despite a deployment ban that remains in place up to this day. In 2015, (our embassy in Iraq) started getting calls for assistance from trafficked Filipinos,” he added.

Cato stressed the need for the government to go after illegal recruiters in Dubai and their cohorts in the Philippines, citing the recent rescue and repatriation of at least 19 Filipinas from Iraq.

Locsin sought for solutions to address the problem, including looking “into some who thought of making money out of it.”

Cato said they have responded and talked to those who were identified as recruiters. 

“Some heeded our advice and stopped recruiting. Those who did not ended up in jail and were subsequently deported. Then locals came in with contacts in the Philippines supplying them with workers,” he added.

In November, the DFA issued a warning to Filipino jobseekers of syndicates operating in Dubai after it rescued two Filipinas from the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The Philippine embassy in Baghdad said trafficking syndicates have been luring victims by offering to advance the cost of their travel to Dubai, where high-paying jobs are supposed to be waiting for them.

“The victims enter Dubai using tourist visas and are then made to work without pay supposedly as part of their ‘training.’ Once their visas are about to expire, the victims are told to accept jobs in Iraq or pay the syndicates the $3,000 they supposedly spent for their deployment,” the DFA said.

The rescued victims were supposedly trafficked through Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and then smuggled to Baghdad or Basra.

“The embassy reminds Filipinos that a deployment ban remains in effect over Iraq. It also warned Filipinos who enter Iraq without visas that they face imprisonment and hefty penalties if caught,” the advisory read.