FOR 4 FILIPINO TEACHERS
LOS
ANGELES, MARCH 7,
2012 (INQUIRER) By Nimfa U. Rueda - To Edith (not her real name),
the offer was a dream come true.
She could move to the United States from the Philippines and
increase her income many times over while continuing to pursue what she loved to
do—which was to teach.
But things didn't turn out as expected.
Edith and three other teachers from Cebu City said they were recruited by a
Los Angeles-based employment agency to work in LA area schools, only to find
themselves working odd jobs illegally just to survive.
"They were deceptively recruited by an employment agency," said Joanna
Concepcion, spokesperson for the LA-based Filipino Migrant Center (FMC) which
has been assisting the teachers.
"The petitioner schools never intended to hire them. There was no work
waiting for them, and this renders their work contracts fraudulent," she told
reporters here Saturday.
The recruiter, West Coast Employment Agency in Los Angeles, is being
investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor,
Concepcion said. The case has also been reported to the Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration (POEA), she added.
Concepcion said the four teachers were among 35 Cebu City-based tutors who
were recruited by the employment agency beginning in 2007 and charged $10,000
each for placement as teachers under the H1B or work authorization program for
nonimmigrant professionals.
Verbal abuse, deportation threats
Breaking their silence, the teachers said the owner of the agency subjected
them to constant verbal abuse and intimidation and threatened to have them
deported if they complained or refused to pay the balance of their placement
fees.
"The saddest part is that we came here to give our children a better future
and now we can't even send them money to pay for their education," said Edith, a
46-year-old veteran teacher with four children.
She said that like her, nearly all the teachers used up all their savings and
borrowed money to pay the recruitment fees.
Another teacher, Patricia (not her real name), 44, said they kept silent all
these years for fear of being deported.
She said they decided to tell their stories to inspire other victims of
unscrupulous recruiters "to step forward and fight for their dignity as workers
and human beings."
Respected and highly regarded
"We were embarrassed to talk about our situation at first because we were
respected and highly regarded teachers in Cebu," said Patricia, choking back
tears.
"But we decided to tell our stories to warn our kababayan to be very careful
when dealing with recruiters. Let's ask our government to go after these abusive
recruiters."
Concepcion said the latest complaint showed abuses by recruitment agencies
and labor trafficking continued under the Aquino administration.
"The US continues to be a hot spot for human and labor trafficking, and some
of the most recent victims were Filipino immigrants and migrant workers," she
said.
Last year, the FMC helped 11 labor trafficking victims, known as the Adman
11, to obtain legal and social services.
The victims had been hired by Manila-based Adman Human Resource Placement and
Promotions to work in Virginia for $7.25 an hour but ended up working in a hotel
in Mississippi for $4.75 per cleaned room.
Recruiters' fraudulent practices
Also subjected to intimidation and threats of deportation if they complained,
the victims fled to Los Angeles to seek help from friends and relatives.
FMC board president Tony Dorono said the stories were nearly the same:
Filipino workers coming to the United States legally, losing their legal status
and becoming undocumented aliens because of the fraudulent practices of
recruiters.
Traffickers often lure their victims with promises of employment and high
earnings, Dorono said. "Their unsuspecting victims often take out huge loans and
sell property to pay for the processing fees and airfare, only to find that
there's no job waiting for them."
"They are often coerced into taking manual labor jobs in care-giving or in
the service sector. These agencies isolate and trap their victims in servitude
for years and force them to pay exorbitant fees for food, housing and other
costs."
"This cycle of labor trafficking and fraud is fed by a surplus pool of labor
made up of millions of Filipinos desperate for work outside their country," he
said.
ABOUT Filipino Migrant Center
Filipino Migrant Center
Non-Profit Organization · Long Beach,
California.
http://fmcsc09.wordpress.com
Founded: 2009
"We dream of a society where families are not broken up by urgent need for
survival. We dream and will actively work for a homeland where there is
opportunity for everyone to live a decent & humane life."
General Information
FMC is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization working for an empowered
Filipino community actively engaged in the movement for local and global
justice.
Mission
We aim to educate, organize and mobilize the low-income and working-class
families of the Filipino community in Southern California and address the issues
and concerns that we face in our daily lives.
In carrying out our mission, we will cultivate and advance a dynamic culture
that values justice and human dignity. We will reaffirm our connections to our
families and loved ones still living in the Philippines to proactively support
their efforts to uplift themselves. We will foster partnerships with
individuals, organizations and communities that share our common interests.
Email: fmcsc09@gmail.com
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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