DMW shuts down travel agency in City of Malolos for illegal recruitment

Photo by ABC

CITY OF MALOLOS – The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Friday closed down a travel agency in this city which illegally recruited workers abroad in exchange for placement fees.

DMW Undersecretary for Licensing and Adjudication Service Bernard Olalia padlocked the office of High Dreamer Travel and Tours in Barangay (village) Catmon due to illegal recruitment activities which victimizes residents in the city and other places in Bulacan.

Olalia said the company, without any legal and necessary permits from the DMW, recruits and demands P50,000 worth of placement fee from residents in exchange for promised jobs abroad.

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A group of 13 complainants sought the help of the DMW after the company, which opened last April, demanded said amount as placement fee for housekeeping jobs in Croatia.

But for more than two months, there was no development in the processing of their documents.

Olalia said the applicants were told to apply as waiters and dairy farmers but would actually be hired for domestic jobs.

The city government also canceled the travel agency’s permit it issued to the firm for operating outside the mandate of a travel and tours company. Barangay Catmon similarly cancels the barangay permit it issued.

According to Olalia, High Dreamer was the 10th illegal recruitment agency in the country and the first in Bulacan which they have closed down since the DMW intensified its anti-illegal recruitment operations.

The owner of the agency will be charged with violation of Republic Act 8042 or the “Migrant Workers Act of 1995.”#