Aside from wishing to be reunited with their families this Christmas, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in New Zealand also wish to be free from the burden of paying excessive recruitment agency fees and costly documents such as the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC).
Members of Migrante Builders Aotearoa, the newest chapter of Migrante Aotearoa New Zealand which is part of the global alliance Migrante International, are among those heavily burdened with paying excessive fees.
Like many OFWs around the globe, we in New Zealand want the total abolition of the OEC which has long been a money-making scheme of recruitment agencies. We join the calls for President Duterte to deliver on his promise to scrap the OEC and spare OFWs from new schemes such as the OFW ID, given that recruitment agencies easily find ways to pass the burden of payment to OFWs again.
MIKEE SANTOS, spokesperson,
Migrante Aotearoa
New Zealand