09 June 2004—Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Domingo Albert warned Filipinos attending local caregiver training schools that promise overseas employment for their graduates to check the backgrounds of these schools more carefully and find out if these are licensed to deploy workers.

“It has come to my attention that a number of these caregiver training schools, which attract enrollees by offering to arrange employment for them abroad once they finish the course, may actually be involved in a scam”, Secretary Albert said.  “Knowing that it would cost a fortune for most ordinary citizens to get themselves an education and a chance to work abroad, I urge our countrymen who are considering a career in care-giving to be very careful in dealing with these schools”, she added.

The Secretary made the remark after reading a report from the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver about an article about Filipino live-in caregivers and nurses in British Columbia which appeared in two Canadian publications, The Province and The Asian Post, on 16 and 20 May 2004, respectively.

The Province reported about a certain “Anna” (not her real name), a Filipina, who has been recruited as a nanny in British Columbia under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).  Anna claims that she, like many caregivers, were recruited under the LCP on bogus employer contracts and are deployed without legitimate employers in Canada.

According to the report, there are hundreds of domestic worker training centers in the Philippines that are considered by Filipinos as essential in fast-tracking access to jobs in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.  Recruited caregivers are charged between US$3,000 and US$5,000 for a package that includes a six-month training course, immigration and LCP paperwork, and an airline ticket.  Some of the trainees were subjected to living conditions beyond their expectations during their employment periods.

The Asian Post reported that the British Columbia National Health Service has compared the recruitment of Filipino nurses by western nations, including Canada and the United States, to people trafficking.  According to the report, 45% of newly recruited nurses overseas were predominantly from the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, and India, thus the British Columbia government has issued a code of conduct barring hiring in many developing countries.  The report also mentioned that the Vancouver Filipino Nurses Support Group estimated that over 1,000 Filipino nurses in British Columbia are not registered to work in their profession and that many of them are working as nannies and homemakers.  END