Illegal recruiters in the Philippines are continuing to victimise workers desperate to escape joblessness at home.

"Many job seekers who go through the illegal recruiters or the so-called 'talent agents'fall into this point of no return," said Victor Fernandez, head of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, Inc. (Pasei).

"Some are simply trying to avoid tough measures put in place to protect them. But often, they're just jumping out of the frying pan into the fire," added Pasei's Fernandez, who recently visited Dubai.

Pasei is the largest association of licensed recruitment agencies authorised by Manila to engage in the $400-million job recruitment industry.

Many Filipinos complained that the illegal recruiters get a helping hand from a section of Manila immigration officials,

Most of the victims of illegal recruiters end up in miserable conditions abroad – and outside the government's mantle of protection. The lucky ones live off the generosity of their compatriots, while the unlucky ones are left to fend for themselves.

The solution, stressed Fernandez, is for applicants to ensure the job recruitment agency is licensed or not blacklisted by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Pasei has also pressed the government to weed out the illegal job agents and jail foreign immigration offices operating illegally.

They are also pushing all would-be OFWs to undergo a pre-employment orientation seminar to be carried out by accredited NGOs. Unlike the illegal recruiters, licensed agencies can be sued by workers when they are maltreated or their salaries are not paid by overseas employers.

"This is part of the Joint and Solidarity and Liability provision under the Magna Carta for Migrant Workers which punishes the recruiters for offences made by employers," Fernandez explained. Billions of pesos have been coughed up by licensed recruiters to settle cases filed by overseas workers who encountered trouble while abroad.

But some illegal recruiters sometimes use names of a licensed agency to recruit workers. While OFWs are exempted from paying the terminal fee of 550 pesos (about $15.00), illegal job agents pay 'escorting fees' averaging $220 per head, the recruits here told Gulf News.

"It is illegal for any immigration agent to charge the so-called 'escorting fees'. Such a fee doesn't exist," Edgardo Mendoza, chief of the Immigration Regulation Division at the Bureau of Immigration in Manila, told Gulf News by phone.

He admits that it's hard to pin down officials who take bribes from illegal recruitment agents under their present system.

Victims, Mendoza said, must be willing to sign affidavits pinpointing the official who received illegal pay-offs.

In July, Mendoza sacked two immigration officials following complaints of extortion from a number of Filipinos who have found work in the UAE.