Migrant's Focus Magazine: Issue #2     Feature #4 Reflections on Recruitment JESSICA is 25 years old and is single. She was enticed by her friends working in Hong Kong to work here as domestic helper. After a while she finally decided to do so. Her friend who was on annual leave brought Jessica to the agency in Manila she herself used in coming to HK. She was interviewed, given a form to fill in, and given the list of requirements for her passport. She was told to bring the requirements on a certain date together with the most important one so that her papers will move: P30,000 as down payment. The balance, another P30,000, is to be paid by cheques, arrangements will be made just before she leaves. She went back to the agency on the agreed date with the requirements and of course, the money. Her family borrowed it from various sources, at various interests. She was then vidoegraphed: front, side and back and coached to say some words of greetings. Months later the agency informed her that a prospective employer had indeed been found. A few more weeks and the visa arrived. She was instructed by the agency to open a checking account and issue a number of post-dated cheques to cover the balance of thirty thousand pesos. She did so. But the Hong Kong of her imagination (mga akala) was not the Hong Kong she experienced first hand. There was a constant conflict of expectations between her employer and herself which eventually led to a deteriorating relationship. Jessica began to fear the morrow as it will be another day of reductive experiences. The situation became unbearable. The workload she can cope with; it was the continually demeaning epithets that bothered her no end. She wanted to terminate the contract but she was worried of the cheques she had issued. ***** MILDRED is, at 34, a mother of three. Her husband is a church minister which does not provide a steady income. She used to be a teacher but the growing family-size demanded more income. There were times when her salary was delayed for months thus to fend for the family, she resorted to borrowing from the school cashier who was a loan shark. Whenever the money comes, it is barely enough to wipe off her debt-list. She decided to come to Hong Kong. A friend introduced her to an agency in the cabezera (provincial capital). She completed all the forms. She waited for months. When the visa arrived, she was told to take a loan for P50, 000 at the lending agency next door assigning the placement agency as the recipient. No money ever passed through her fingers nor were the documents given her. Mildred endured the treatment she received from her employer. By the time she finished her contract she had lost 20 lbs. She has repaid the lending agency. Her current employer is a bit of an improvement over her first. ***** LORNA, with five children, was approached by a childhood friend who is working in Hong Kong. She can help her find a job. She pities Lorna, she said. Her friend however, asked her to fork in five thousand pesos, for miscellaneous expenses. Lorna, after procuring the amount from different sources, did so. A few months later, her friend who has come back to HK sent her a letter telling her to report to a specified agency as she had found her a prospective employer. After filling up various forms and submitting a list of requirements, which of course took some time to prepare, she waited for the visa to come through. She was told down-payment is P15,000 but once she starts working she will have to pay the principal agency HKD7,000. Months later Lorna did enter Hong Kong. She was met by an agency representative at the airport and was brought to the agency boarding house. The following day, they were brought to the Immigration Department to apply for their HK ID Card. Straight from the ID, after the Temporary ID was issued, they were brought to a lending agency to apply for a loan to pay the balance. She contracted a loan of HKD18,000 payable in eight months well above what she needed. However that was the minimum the lending agency allows. She is still paying the loan. Her friend also keeps on borrowing money from her - after all she helped her find the job - an accounting of her debt of gratitude (utang na loob). Suffice it to say, she is never repaid. What ever forces or motivates a Filipino to work overseas, makes her/him a victim of illegal recruitment. What many do not realize - many take it to be the normal way - is that exorbitant and excessive fees - fees well above what is required by law, constitute illegal recruitment. Whatever indignities they experience in the work-sites, they are torn between the imperative to keep the their jobs and keeping their dignity. They realize that they, and all others, are on the one hand, hostages to recruitment agencies they approached in the Philippines and the two-week rule imposed by the Hong Kong Immigration Department on the other. Their desire to keep whatever sense of dignity left in them has become least priority because they are trapped. Only a few dare tackle these agencies head-on, and fewer still persist, let alone succeed. The long, tedious and expensive legal processes discourage the Davids who have the courage to face the Goliaths of recruitment agencies. 2,000 OFW's leave the Philippines daily. There are now something like 7M documented (and undocumented OFW's) deployed world-wide. According to UN estimates they contribute USD8B annually to the Philippine economy. The OFW's as a sector, is the second biggest contributor to the Philippine economy. Thus in recognition, they are called Mga Bagong Bayani - the new (economic) heroes and heroines - an ascription first used by Pres. Aquino. It is crystal clear therefore that the government benefits tremendously from the Labor Export Program. Previous Philippine governments had always professed to protect migrant workers. RA 4082, The Magna Carta for Overseas Contract Workers was passed into law. The reality is, these are empty rhetorics. A simple case in point: the POEA has only eight legal officers to handle complaints brought to its attention: 7,000 in 1997 alone. Another nullifying factor is the implementation of Memorandum Circular 41 of the POEA which grants among other things the right to arbitrate frictions between the helper and the employer to the recruitment agency. The OFW is clearly one of the most vulnerable member, not only of the receiving society, but also of the Philippine society as well. The Labor Export Policy of the Philippine government victimizes them without end.     Search our site: advance search             Back to top           1995 - 2001 (c) copyright The Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers (HK) Society e-mail: mission@migrants.net website: http://www.migrants.net