‘Recalcitrant’ recruiters slammed on escrow

Dr. Chie Umandap of AKO OFW (right) says erring foreign recruiters are running around the $10,000 escrow requirement of the government. ALFONSO PADILLA

The fate of some 5 million Overseas Filipino workers (OFW) deployed in the Middle East hangs on the balance due to the alleged haphazard implementation of a government order requiring foreign recruitment agencies (FRA) to put in escrow $10,000 each to cover legal claims of workers.

This was the concern aired by the Advocates and Keepers Organization of OFW (AKO OFW), a self-proclaimed global non-government organization helping distressed workers.

The group faced the media in the hope President Rodrigo Duterte will take note of their complaints, including the poor implementation of the escrow order.

OFW endure maltreatment, non-payment of wages and other violations of their contracts of employment, thus the necessity of ensuring the presence of the escrow fund, it said.

It added the escrow deposit must be made mandatory before the accreditation of foreign recruiters.

The escrow requirement is mandated by the 2016 revised rules and regulations of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration covering land-based OFW.

The group said that previously, FRA with pending accreditation renewals were required to put a higher escrow of $50,000 if they were facing cases filed by workers.

The $50,000 requirement was reduced to $10,000 through POEA Governing Board Resolution 10, passed on 22 June 2016, it said.

Once accreditation or renewal is approved, FRA hiring household workers are required “to put up and maintain an escrow account with a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas-authorized bank to handle trust accounts with a minimum of $10,000.”

The 2016 POEA rule stipulates that the recruitment agency is required to pay up additional escrow deposit to cover legal claims — 1 to 5 cases, $3,000 per case; 6 to 10 cases, $4,000 per case and 11 or more cases, $5,000 per case.

However, there are recalcitrant FRA that have flouted the escrow requirement, mostly those involved in the recruitment of household workers bound for the Arab Gulf states that provide the larger bulk of OFW remittances to the Philippines, AKO OFW said.

An order of President Duterte imposing sanctions on non-compliant FRA to the escrow requirement would “protect and promote the benefits, interest, rights and general welfare of OFW,” the group said.

OFW remittances account for 10 percent of the country’s GDP. In 2017, Middle East-based OFW (mostly household workers) provided 27 percent or $5.4 billion out of the total $16 billion in remittances.