TUCP urges Government to crackdown on recruiters illegally deploying workers to Iraq

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) in a statement today urged the Government to go after recruiters and employment agencies illegally deploying workers in Iraq in the wake of another reported incident of kidnapping of a Filipino worker in the war-torn country.

The Labor Department, last night, confirmed reports that a certain Roberto Tarangoy have gone missing the other day. He is presumed to have been taken by Iraqi militants together with a number of others.

The TUCP said that unless the Government identify and punish the recruiters violating the government-imposed ban on the deployment of contract workers to Iraq the saga of kidnappings will continue.

TUCP likens Iraq to a brightly burning oil lamp that attracts flies. “Filipino workers in their search for good pay are like the flies attracted by the high paying jobs in Iraq totally unmindful of the dangers,” TUCP said.

The TUCP said that the Labor and Foreign Affairs departments should go after those responsible for sending not only of Roberto Tarangoy but as well as the 120 Filipinos who have managed to land jobs in Iraq.

“Unless the Government shows some teeth against recruiters they will continue to send Filipino workers to harms way. At the very least their licenses should be revoked and their principals sent to jail,” said the TUCP.

The TUCP made a similar call a few weeks ago after reports came out that some 120 Filipinos slipped into Iraq. The workers were recruited by the local firm Anglo-European Placement International and were flown to Dubai before they were sent to Iraq.

Their recruitment agency denied that they knew the workers were deployed to Iraq.

“These are the kind of lame excuses that we will hear from erring recruitment agencies,” TUCP said.