The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has reminded licensed recruitment and manning agencies of their responsibility to monitor and report the status and condition of their deployed workers.
The POEA said licensed agencies are mandated to report the status and condition, particularly significant and critical incidences involving their deployed OFWs within 5 working days from its occurrence through the POEA Online Welfare Monitoring System (OWMS).
According to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID), an increasing number of OFWs were barred from entering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) even the worker holds a valid Overseas Employment Certificate but were remained unreported by their respective recruitment agencies.
The immigration bureau has also observed that the declaration forms of arriving OFW included concerns such as blacklisting due to unfinished contract caused by travel restrictions during the pandemic, running away, and conflict with a former employer in KSA. Saudi Immigration also discovered that some OFWs were holding two valid KSA work permits with different sponsors.
The POEA reminded licensed agencies to report similar incidents concerning their deployed workers and immediately act on the complaints or problems brought to its attention. Under the POEA rules and regulations, non-compliance or failure the required report is a ground for administrative sanctions and penalties for the erring licensed and manning agencies.