DOLE cracks down on firms sending women to South Korea

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has begun a crackdown on eleven recruitment agencies suspected of sending women to South Korea to work as prostitutes.

"There is a special task force that is now tracking down these recruitment agencies," Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said, adding that these agencies were mostly unlicensed and operating illegally.

Sto. Tomas said many of the women were told by the agencies that they would work as entertainers.

They left the country without their travel papers processed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that would have otherwise given them some measure of protection from abuse.

Philippine labor officials in South Korea are now helping women file criminal charges against employers who forced them into prostitution, Sto. Tomas said. She did not know, however, how many cases have been filed.

There are about 50,000 Filipinos working in South Korea, most of them in manufacturing and electronics firms. Of that figure, 20,000 are working in South Korea illegally on tourist or trainee visas.

Felicitas Bay, former chief of the POEA’s anti-illegal recruitment division, said South Korea is a leading destination of illegally deployed Filipino workers based on complaints filed before their office.

Bay said most of the Filipino workers staying illegally in South Korea would first enter the country on tourist visas, which do not allow them to seek employment there.

They would then find work without the prior necessary papers, thus making them prone to abuse because of their status.

And despite an intensified government crackdown on unscrupulous recruitment agencies, cases of illegal recruitment continue to rise.

However, Sto. Tomas gave assurances that the DOLE is implementing more stringent regulations to protect overseas Filipino workers from illegal recruiters and abuse.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel last week made public the names of the 11 recruitment agencies and urged the government to prosecute those responsible.