New passports seen to solve illegal recruitment problem

With the recent implementation of the Machine-Readable Passport Scheme, officials hope to solve the issuance of double passports for Overseas Filipino Workers to offered jobs to countries banned for employment entry.

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration-7 regional director Evelia Durato said the recently implemented MRPS by the Department of Foreign Affairs will hopefully solve the problem of illegal recruitment of applicants offered jobs in the identified banned countries.

Durato said victims of illegal recruitment to Iraq raised their complaints last year presenting two passports issued under a single name.

She said the matter was reported when two Cebuanos, Aldwin Pardillo and Ian David, were apprehended in Dubai on their way to employment in Iraq.

The victims presented to POEA-7 two passports given by recruiters.

One of the pair of passports owned by each victim was issued May 2006 while the other was on May 2004.

The entry ban to Iraq was issued in 2005 yet.

The passports issued on May 2004 did not bear the stamp “Not Valid for Travel to Iraq” since the intention was for travel to the said countries.

The victims, however, did not came forward to file charges against the recruiter but only to recover the facilitation fee of P10,000.

The matter was raised to DFA office and still remains unresolved.

“So with this, we hope that the double issuance will never happen again,” Durato said.

Under the MRPS, the applicant needs to personally appear, sign and affix his thumb prints on the application form before a consular office at the department.

A machine-generated application form is printed with the personal details of the applicant who has the responsibility to verify the accuracy of the data printed on the form.   — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP