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The Blas F. Ople Policy Center expressed concern that inadequate
incomes and a severe lack of job opportunities could escalate the
number of illegal recruitment cases.
“Driven by desperation, the unemployed and
underemployed become easy victims of illegal recruiters who are able
to conjure fairy tales of a glamorous life overseas in a single
encounter,” the Ople Center said.
Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople, head of
the policy center, noted a steady increase in the number of illegal
recruitment cases being handled by the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA) and human trafficking cases lodged
with the Commission on Filipino Overseas (CFO). Despite such
increases, the number of staff handling illegal recruitment and
human trafficking remain low.
The Ople Center lamented that there are only 22
people in the POEA’s anti-illegal recruitment branch who are
involved with surveillance, filing and monitoring of cases and
conducting preventive information campaigns.
“Twenty-two people within POEA are manning the
fort against highly mobile and cunning illegal recruiters with the
lives of hundreds of thousands of potential victims at stake. Even
if they enter into partnerships with the NBI, CIDG and other
agencies, that core staff is still woefully inadequate,” Ople
stressed. She pointed out that the same holds true for the
anti-human trafficking unit of the CFO. At the Department of Foreign
Affairs, she recalled that there was only one officer assigned to
the anti-trafficking desk.
“When an undocumented worker is detained
overseas for some violation, the government is required by law to
assist the worker. We can save millions if we invest more in
preventing illegal recruitment and human trafficking at home,” Ms.
Ople said.
Based POEA records, there was an 8 percent
increase in pending cases last year compared to 2006. Despite this
increase, there was a decline in the number of arrests of suspected
illegal recruiters from 50 in 2006 to only 26 suspects in 2007.
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