POEA bans 2 Us-based employment agencies

For forcing Filipinos to work in American farms and hotels for very low wages, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration ( POEA) barred two US- based employment agencies from recruiting overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

POEA chief Hans Cacdac said US Opportunities and Royal Services, LLC and Royal Hospitality Services could no longer recruit Filipino workers for their client companies.

Cacdac said POEA opted to exclude the two employment agencies from the government’s overseas employment program because they violated the rules governing the recruitment and employment of landbased Filipino workers.

According to Cacdac, the POEA initiated the complaint after the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Washington reported the plight of 24 OFWs who were alleged victims of human trafficking and forced labor.

The victims reportedly paid up to P350,000 in fees to get jobs in hotels in Florida under the US H2B visa, but were instead brought to Mississippi and were made to work in farms planting seeds and have to live in trailers, trapped in the woods for a month without water and electricity.

“They were allegedly subjected to threats and intimidation, made to work raking and bailing pine leaves in the dead of winter, and forced to plant 1,800 pine tree seedlings a day for a measly wage of $40 a week,” Cacdac said.

The workers escaped and were eventually referred to Royal Hospitality Services, which placed them in various hotels and entertainment facilities where they were paid below the minimum wage, with their earnings subjected to illegal deductions.

Cacdac said separate human trafficking cases have been filed against the recruiters in the US Department of Home Security and the Department of Justice in the Philippines.

The owner of US Opportunities, Mike Lombardi, had recently pleaded guilty to charges of visa fraud, and is in jail awaiting judgment on Aug. 6.

The POEA also suspended the license of FMJ International Manpower and Allied Services Inc. for using visas issued to sales and restaurant workers to deploy domestic workers to other employers in Jordan.

POEA has stopped processing of contracts of newly hired Filipino household service workers for Jordan since January 2008.