GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/08 May) – An official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has called on local coastguard and immigration personnel to tighten their monitoring on foreign fishing vessels plying the area following the uncovered “backdoor” movement of 55 undocumented workers here.
Bienvenido Tejano, Philippine Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, said the Philippine Coastguard and the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation should regularly check all passing foreign vessels to make sure that they only carry documented workers and crew.
He made the call after the 55 undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from this city who were repatriated by the PNG government last week admitted that they were recruited and had left for supposed sea- and land-based jobs in PNG via nine fishing vessels.
“The nine vessels were able to leave the area without them (PCG and BID) knowing whether they carried people bound overseas who were undocumented,” Tejano said.
Tejano arrived here along with the repatriated OFWs last Saturday, a day after they were sent home by the PNG government.
He facilitated the repatriation of the workers, who were earlier abandoned by their employers in Manus Province in PNG due to documentation problems.
“They were barely surviving when I found them. They don’t have any money and food since they were stranded there for over a year already,” he said.
Tejano immediately sought assistance from PNG’s Ministry of Fisheries and the provincial government of Manus for the repatriation and provision of the necessary assistance for the stranded OFWs.
“The (PNG) officials sympathized with their plight and took care of their needs,” the official said.
Citing their initial inquiry, Tejano said the workers were earlier hired as land- and sea-based crew members of a fishing company in PNG.
But he said the undisclosed company was unable to commence its fishing operations due to documentation problems, leaving the crew members unpaid and stranded for a year and a half.
Roal Lacuata, the group’s leader, said they were initially promised with jobs in PNG through a company supposedly connected with its government.
“We were told that there would be no problems even if we don’t have the proper documents since (the company) is supposedly owned by the government,” he said.
Lacuata said they signed work contracts with the company after arriving in PNG but it was declared invalid after several months.
He said they later sought assistance from the Philippine embassy in PNG due to their worsening situation. (Allen V. Estabillo/MindaNews)