Agencies

The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency or POEA is the government arm in the Philippines that accredits would be private overseas employment agencies.

The POEA is tasked with weeding out the many "phony" recruitment agencies" that take advantage of Filipinos seeking greener pastures abroad. Illegal recruitment is rife in places where there is an outflow of migrant workers, so the POEA has its hands full staving off and catching these heartless pretenders here in the Philippines

Many "recruitment agencies" operate without a license and/or pose as migration experts, leading people to believe that they have a license to furnish jobs abroad when in fact they are only licensed to "coach" would-be migrants in achieving the steps that will bring them closer to the country of their choice.

There are several thousand POEA accredited agencies in the Philippines as of 2009, and almost 15-30 percent of them a year get their licensed revoked for non-compliance or for a major violation

For the benefit of Filipino OFW's who wish to work abroad here is a quick look at the licensing process that a potential recruitment agency has to go through:

1. The recruitment agency must posses a contract from employers abroad proving that there is in fact a job order
2. Special Power of Attorney
3. Manpower request
4.Copy of Business License

The POEA then has investigators that follow up on these items and makes sure that everything is above-ground. Only when the investigators are satisfied does the license request is turned over to higher authorities within the agency.