The country’s overseas employment body has ordered the operations of a Manila-based recruitment company to be suspended and investigated, for its alleged involvement in recruiting two teenage girls to work as domestic helpers in Syria.
In a Philippine Overseas Employment Administration release dated Friday, the employment body said it has directed the investigation of Greengate Manpower Services Co., a licensed recruitment agency based in Ermita in Manila, for reportedly recruiting two minors aged 14 and 17.
The release said the victims were offloaded at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after Immigration officials suspected the girls’ real identities were altered, based on the documents they presented and the obvious discrepancies in their ages as compared to their physical appearance.
Initial investigation showed the girls attempted to pass themselves off as 23 years old, as indicated in their passports, to qualify as household service workers.
The girls eventually admitted they were both minors, aged 14 and 17, and brought by their recruiters to Manila from Lamitan town in Basilan.
Under the Household Service Worker Reform Package of the POEA, household workers are required to be at least 23 years of age.
The victims’ overseas employment certificates indicate they were recruited by Greengate as domestic helpers bound for Syria.
POEA administrator Jennifer Manalili likewise ordered that Greengate be placed under preventive suspension, to prohibit the agency from further recruiting workers for overseas employment.
The POEA said under pertinent overseas employment laws and the POEA Rules and Regulations, deployment of minors carries a penalty of cancellation of the license of the recruitment agency.
Reached for comment, an employee of Greengate who refused to be identified said the two girls were walk-in applicants who had all the necessary papers prior to their application.
“They already have their passports and other documents when they came to us. We didn’t know they were minors,” the staff member said.
Prior to its suspension, Greengate, a private recruitment agency with a registered address in Mabini St. in Ermita, Manila, was classified by the POEA as in “good standing” with a license effective until March 2011.
The POEA thus cautioned prospective applicants for overseas jobs, especially those from far-flung areas, to guard against recruitment agencies and illegal recruiters that promise overseas employment and prey on young girls.
“Parents are especially advised not to be swayed by the enticing offers of work abroad for their minor children,” the POEA said, adding it is likewise asking local government units for assistance in intensifying the campaign against illegal recruitment and trafficking in persons.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV
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