The licences of three Filipino recruiters were cancelled over the past month due to illegal behaviour, including misrepresentation and charging recruits.

The first was Mid-South Ship and Crew Management, which had its licence cancelled last month by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) after it was found to have collected placement fees from two seafarers.

Three-and-a-half months into their two-year contracts with a Taiwan-based fishing vessel, the recruits returned home complaining of malnutrition and unpaid salaries. It was found they had paid PHP30k (£425) and PHP60k respectively for their placements. 

The agency was ordered to refund the illegal fees while the officers and directors of the agency at the time of offences were disqualified from recruitment and deployment of overseas Filipino workers.

Elsewhere, early this month Filscandia Manpower Recruitment Services lost its licence after being found to have deployed a household services worker to Lebanon, a banned country for deployments. The POEA-approved job order stated the worker was bound for Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.

Filscandia had previously had licences cancelled for other cases of misrepresentation using the same modus operandi, though POEA communications did not say when this was.

The POEA declared a total ban on deployment of Filipino workers to Lebanon in December 2007.

Finally, this week, CAZ International had its licence suspended for attempting to deploy six household service workers as office personnel and sales persons, though they were actually bound for roles as domestic workers. 

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