DOLE to suspend recruitment agency's accreditation over alleged rape of OFW in Riyadh

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello has ordered the suspension of a foreign recruitment agency’s accreditation with the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Riyadh after an overseas Filipino worker was allegedly raped by the owner and molested by one of her employers.

Bello said in a statement that this is how the labor department can “deliver a blow” to Home Comfort Recruitment Office/Home Comfort Manpower Services since the alleged crime happened outside the Philippines and it cannot file a case against the foreign recruitment agency.

The labor chief, however, instructed Labor Attache Fidel Macauyag to work closely with Saudi authorities for the filing of criminal charges and prosecution of Home Comfort owner Meshail Mabrook Al Bassani Al Qahtani and employer Abdulaziz Ahlas.

On top of this, he also told Philippine Overseas Employment Administration chief Bernard Olalia to sanction Home Comfort and Al Qahtani.

Olalia was also tasked to investigate Ahlas over violations of POEA rules and impose penalties for the sexual abuse against the OFW.

Bello also instructed the POEA to punish the local recruitment agency SAMA International Recruitment Agency which supposedly ignored the victim’s complaints.

He also ordered the POEA to build up an administrative case against SAMA and suspend it. — Xave Gregorio