Underage Pinoys enticed to work as DH in Bahrain

A recruitment agency already blacklisted by the Philippine embassy in Bahrain has been able to send teenage Filipinos to work as domestic helpers in the Arab state, according to a report. Bahrain accepts foreign domestic helpers who are at least 30 years old while the Philippine government’s policy requires deployment of household service workers who are at least 23 years old, up from the previous age requirement of 21. The Gulf Daily News based in Bahrain reported in its website that the Philippine embassy is investigating the recruitment agency that had managed to send Filipino women who are as young as 15 years old to work as domestic helpers in the homes of Bahraini employers. Four of the agency’s underage recruits are currently under custody of the Philippine embassy. Two of them are 17 years old and the other two were in their early 20s. The report did not name the agency, which is said to be on the list of 30 manpower agencies and employers barred from bringing in Filipino workers to Bahrain. The recruits, according to the report, carried passports with dubious entries, such as overstated age, and birth certificates that show they were almost twice their real age. They purportedly come from remote villages in the Philippines, had no prior experience as domestic helper and had never traveled outside the country before going to Bahrain. The embassy alerted employers last week against the growing number of underage Filipinos being flown to Bahrain to work as domestic helpers. Labor attaché Alejandro Santos called on members of the Filipino community in Bahrain to be vigilant and report to police any of their fellow citizens found selling free visas to workers in the Philippines. He also advised against job offers through Internet websites offering free visas. "We do not know exactly how many of these Filipinos exactly are there, but we do see a rise in the number of workers seeking our assistance because they have been conned into coming to Bahrain on free visas," he said. "They pay large amounts of money for these visas and they are promised good jobs upon arrival, but after reaching here, they find that these jobs do not exist and they are left to find work for themselves," he noted. Earlier, Santos reported that fewer Bahrainis and non-Bahrainis employers have qualified to hire Filipino domestic workers under the Philippine government’s new deployment guidelines for household service workers, including in-house caregivers. According to him, the embassy processed only 30 employment contracts since January, which was remarkably low compared to the previous year’s level at 10 contracts a month. Placement agencies who opposed the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) deployment guidelines had warned that its enforcement would lead to the proliferation of illegal recruiters. In most cases, illegally recruited maids are paid at far less than the $400 minimum monthly salary prescribed by the POEA beginning Dec. 16, 2006. Most of the maids manage to leave the Philippines after paying huge sums of borrowed money to unauthorized recruiters who arrange for their travel papers, including visit or tourist visas. Many of them even end up being maltreated by their employers, or find themselves without work upon arrival in a foreign country. Just recently, the POEA and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued warnings against recruiters promising high-paying jobs abroad in exchange for huge sums in “processing" fees, but the workers come to realize their were conned only after finding out that the promised jobs were non-existent. POEA had also warned against job offers using Internet websites. Jobseekers were advised to check with the POEA if the individuals and placement agencies promising them jobs overseas were authorized. "To avoid being victimized by these scams, applicants must make sure that the jobs actually exist by checking on the website of the employer, its complete address, post code and contract details through search engines like Google," said Labor Secretary Arturo Brion. "They should not deal with employers with no verifiable contact details." "Job seekers also must always be skeptical of Internet employment offers that appear to be 'too good to be true', such as huge salary offer, free accommodation and food, and free use of amenities," he said. -GMANews.TV