To help ensure that Filipinos who aspire to work abroad will not be victimized by illegal recruiters, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Tuesday said that it will launch an online jobs fair next week.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia, during the “Laging Handa” Public Briefing, said that the agency will launch an online jobs fair in line with its efforts to prevent illegal recruitment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as well as a response to the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country.
“In line of our efforts to prevent online scams and to minimize the spread of the pandemic, we will have an online jobs fair next week instead of a physical jobs fair,” Olalia said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The link, Olalia said, will be seen in the official website of the POEA once available. “We will oversee it and will monitor the online jobs fair,” he said. This initiative, he added, is also conducted to help OFWs and other Filipinos who wish to find job opportunities abroad.
Olalia noted that there has been an increasing number of Filipinos who are victimized by online scams especially during the recent months. “Medyo dumami ang kababayan na nabi-biktima ng online scam particularly sa overseas employment industry (The number of our fellowmen who are victimized by online scams, particularly related to the overseas employment industry has been increasing),” he said.
The POEA, Olalia explained, has various initiatives to prevent Filipinos, who aspire to work abroad, from falling into hands of illegal recruiters. “We have preventive measures and remedial measures,” he noted.
Among the preventive measures include giving labor advisories to applicants or those Filipinos who wish to apply for jobs abroad on the latest schemes used by illegal recruiters. “We mention red flags so they will not be victimized,” he added.
There are also remedial measures and assistance given by POEA to help those who are already victimized by illegal recruiters.
Meanwhile, Olalia reminded applicants to deal only with licensed recruitment agencies (LRAs). “These are our partner agencies, they have responsibilities which do not only end in the deployment of the OFWs,” he said.
LRAs, Olalia said, are also responsible in monitoring and ensuring the welfare of OFWs abroad. “When they have problems abroad, they also need to report to the POEA and help these OFWs,” he ended.
Earlier, Olalia confirmed that the temporary suspension of deploying healthcare workers abroad has been lifted. He added that POEA has also started processing their deployment.