DMW encourages victims of illegal recruitment, human trafficking to come forward
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Migrant Workers on Thursday is ramping up its operations against trafficking agencies or individuals, calling on all victims to report their experiences to the department for appropriate action.
“We encourage victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking to report these crimes to us. Workers’ protection is one of the core functions of the DMW,” Migrant Workers Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople said in a statement on Thursday.
This comes after the department shuttered an agency, which has been recruiting and deploying seafarers abroad even without an existing permit from the DMW, effectively violating Republic Act No. 8042 – the law that provides regulatory measures for overseas employment to protect migrant Filipino workers.
It was recruiting Filipinos to take jobs as deck seafarers, able engine seafarers, yacht stewards, among others.
Ople ordered the DMW’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau to close the agency’s office in Sta. Cruz, Manila. The DMW will be filing illegal recruitment cases against the JCB-Success Maritime Consultancy and its officers.
Illegal activities
JCB-Success Maritime Consultancy was shut down after one of the victims filed an official tesimony and reported the agency to the DMW in October last year. He reached out to the agency in hopes to apply for an engine cadet position in September 2021.
Along with three other applicants, the agency promised they would be deployed within three months.
“Even those deemed unqualified were promised jobs,” the DMW said. The agency, even without a proper permit, was asking its applicants to submit official documents, from a Seafarer’s Identification and Record Book to copies of their passport and resume.
Each applicant was also asked to pay P75,000 as a placement fee but they never ended up getting deployed.
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