Wednesday, October 15, 2008 OFW deployment to Korea slows down
DEPLOYMENT of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS) has dropped to 39.8 percent, records of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed.
Of the 11,000 quota yearly allowed by the Korean government to the Philippines, deployed OFWs falling under the new hires category only reached to 6,452 for 2007 compared to 10,575 in 2006 down by 4,000 workers, statistics showed.
Recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani said the reason for the deployment drop is basically due to the high cases of labor problems between private employers in the host country.
Another factor, Geslani said, is "our EPS workers lack of knowledge on Korea laws and culture."
"In view of rising number of runaways leaving their jobsites and seeking employment with other Korean employers, the POEA decided to slow down the processing of EPS workers in the middle of 2007 and refused to register the hundreds of thousands eager applicants for EPS workers to Korea," he added.
POEA Administrator Jennifer Manalili said they are set to again sign a new memorandum of understanding with the Korean government on a new batch of workers to be sent in 2008-2009.
However, private recruitment agencies who were at the forefront of OFW deployment to Korea are asking: "Why the government insists on taking over the function of private recruitment agencies in the deployment of OFWs abroad?"
According to Geslani, Korea-bound applicants spends no less than P30,000 for the official documentation and mobilization costs involved in the selection and deployment of OFWs to Korea which is a violation of the POEA rules.
"Under POEA rules, airfare is always paid for by each employer or principal and other costs needed for mobilization may or not be paid by principals," Geslani lamented.
Aside from paying the documentations such as medical exams and pre-qualifying tests, an OFW has to pass the Korean Language Test (KLT) that requires him or her to enroll in a Korean Language School.
The tuition ranges from P12,000 to P18,000 depending on the location such Manila or the provinces where the same course is offered to eager applicants.
Under the EPS only those who pass the KLT test (US$30) are officially registered with the EPS selection list handled by the POEA and sent to Ministry of Labor/Human Resources Division in Korea. (MSN/Sunnex)
