POEA to probe Dubai drivers’ plight

INQUIRER.net
Posted date: April 14, 2009

MANILA, Philippines—The spouses of the 137 stranded drivers in Dubai have filed their complaints of illegal recruitment in behalf of their husbands with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, a non-government organization helping distressed overseas Filipino workers said Tuesday.

The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, which brought the wives of the stranded drivers to POEA, said lawyer Rosemarie Duquez, head of the POEA’s Anti-Illegal Recruitment Branch, promised to summon the driver’s local licensed recruiter, CYM International Services, as part of the POEA probe.

Susan Ople, executive director of the center and former labor undersecretary, thus warned the public against non-existent jobs for drivers in Dubai.

She issued the warning following the case of the 137 bus drivers, who applied with CYM International Services after receiving flyers distributed at various terminals announcing the availability of 4,000 jobs for bus drivers in Dubai.

“It is outrageous that a licensed recruitment agency would resort to illegal recruitment practices to dupe these bus drivers out of their hard-earned money,” Ople said.

Upon arriving in Dubai, the workers learned that Dubai’s Road Transport Authority (RTA), a government agency that was supposed to hire them, was not aware of such recruitment efforts and is not hiring any more drivers.

The bus drivers, most of whom came from Central Luzon, were promised hefty salaries in exchange for a placement fee of P150,000. The drivers and their families borrowed money from the lending agency referred to them by the recruiter.

“The promise was that after a month’s training, a Dubai company will hire them as bus drivers. They took out loans to pay the exorbitant placement fees because they thought they would earn enough in Dubai,” Ople explained in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

“Several of these workers have been in Dubai since January, and until now, they have not been trained nor hired and the company involved was not even aware of such arrangements,” she added.

At the same time, she asked the government to assign a specific agency to monitor and regulate lending companies that offer loans specifically to OFWs.

The wives of the bus drivers also went to the Department of Foreign Affairs to seek help for the horrendous living conditions of their husbands, who have resorted to scavenging in dumpsites for recyclable items they can sell.

The drivers’ plight brought out the Filipinos’ innate generosity with the Filipinos in Dubai donating food, water, and other items.

“I spoke to Claro Oliver, one of the bus drivers, and he was so touched by the outpouring of support from Filipinos who drove all the way to their camp in an aid convoy bringing food, toiletries, and drinking water,” Ople said.

The wives also requested assistance so that their husbands can retrieve their passports from CYM International Services’ counterpart agency in Dubai.

Ople also urged the government to allot part of the 220,000 job commitments obtained by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for the bus drivers stranded in Dubai.

“This is a good test case for the commitments obtained. The drivers are highly professional and well-experienced, and most of them really prefer to work in the Emirates so they can pay back their loans,” she said.