Lebanese on BI watchlist for alleged illegal recruitment

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday it has placed a Lebanese national on its watchlist for his alleged involvement in the illegal recruitment and deployment of Filipino workers to Lebanon.

BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan issued the order placing Fady Karout on the bureau’s watchlist upon the request of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The BI also placed on its watchlist Karout’s Filipina wife, Rosalinda, and a certain Remy Sacro, a suspected accomplice of the couple.

BI spokesman Floro Balato Jr. said the DFA made the request to Libanan to include the three individuals in the bureau’s watchlist as an offshoot of a report from the Philippine embassy in Beirut.

Balato said Karout will be barred from entering the country unless he can present a clearance from the Philippine embassy in Beirut.

Karout and Sacro, on the other hand, may be barred from leaving the country unless they are cleared to travel abroad by the DFA, he said.

According to the BI, the Philippine embassy informed the DFA about a complaint filed against the suspects by Rovelyn Liggayu Ballad. The BI said Ballad was recruited by Farouk to work in Labanon through Sacro, who submitted her documents to Karout for the processing of her visa and trip to Lebanon.

Ballad had served four employers from the time she arrived in Lebanon in October 2008, the BI said.

Ballad said the Karouts would not allow her to return home unless she pays them $2,000, according to the BI.

She escaped from the couple’s house and sought shelter at the Philippine embassy in Beirut, the agency said.