OFWs spend about 1.2 months’ pay on recruiting fees, ILO says
THE International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) paid about P100 billion in fees to land overseas jobs between October 2016 and September 2019.
“Overseas Filipino workers spent on average just about 1.2 months of their salary to pay back or cover the recruitment costs paid to get their jobs abroad,” the ILO said in a study.
OFWs received an average of P45,000 during their first months of work overseas.
The study recommended that OFWs have better access to jobs overseas, targeting higher-skilled jobs reflecting their educational attainment, while reducing the financial burden of recruitment. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana