A daughter of the late labor secretary Blas F. Ople warned Filipinas not to accept jobs for domestic helpers for employers in Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon, following reports of rampant illegal recruitment and human trafficking of workers for these countries. At the same time, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) also issued advisories on alleged bogus job offers from employers in Romania, China, Spain, Canada and several other countries. Susan Ople, a former labor undersecretary and now head of the Blas F. Ople Labor Center in Manila, Philippines has no embassy in Syria to look after the welfare of Filipinos working there, particularly as domestic helpers. The Syrian government has no comprehensive laws to protect migrant workers there, she added. In Kuwait, a number of welfare cases involving Filipino maids who were abused by their employers has been rising “seriously,” Ople said. Lebanon poses threats to Filipino workers there because of continuing armed conflict, she said. “Some of the Filipinos prefer to throw caution to the wind and try their luck elsewhere thinking that nothing can be worse than the situation here at home,” Ople said. She said their dreams of working overseas could turn into a nightmare when they get mean employers. Ople said bases on her center's data, a number of Filipino women leaving to work as domestic helpers in Syria continues to rise despite Manila's efforts to discourage them. Ople said the center, known for helping Filipino workers in distress in other countries, has been receiving disturbing reports about Filipino maids being maltreated in Syria. Ople expressed her concern that low incomes and lack of job opportunities in the Philippines has been driving Filipinos to work overseas. “Driven by desperation, the unemployed and underemployed become easy prey of illegal recruiters who are going at creating fairy tales of a good life overseas,” she said. She noted a steady increase in the number of illegal recruitment cases filed with the POEA and human trafficking cases lodge with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. Based on POEA records, there was an 8 percent increase in the number of illegal recuritment cases filed with it last year, compared to 2006. Despite this increase, there had a decline in the number of arrests of suspected illegal recruiters from 50 in 2006 to only 26 in 2007.
