The Philippines government's requirement that its expatriate workers obtain exit permits has long been a thorn in the sides of many Filipinos. As The National reported yesterday, a group representing their interests has described it as an unnecessary burden and called on their government to scrap the system.
While the exit permit’s supposed intention is to ensure that overseas Filipino workers are properly documented and protected, it is an unnecessary duplication that has opened doors for abuse. Many Filipinos working overseas are on low incomes and can ill afford to pay a fee every time they begin a job or return to work from a holiday at home. There is also evidence that some officials in the Philippines are using the system as a means of extorting bribes from these vulnerable people.
Filipinos are required to pay about Dh92 every two years to obtain an overseas employment certificate. But the certificate expires after 60 days, so they have to pay again if they go home more than once within two years. The Filipino migrant rights group, Migrante Middle East, goes so far as to call the system a form of state extortion.
Expatriate workers are also required to pay a terminal fee at airports in the Philippines despite the fact that this payment is automatically charged when buying overseas flight tickets. This means that they have to wait in long queues to get the fee refunded or just forgo their refund to avoid missing their flights. There are also reports of airport staff illegally soliciting money – including through the so-called “bullet scam”, where bullets are planted in passengers’ luggage as they go through security and a bribe is demanded.
There is some hope for a resolution. In his first state of the nation address, Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte pledged to establish a separate department to deal with the needs of overseas workers and promised to crack down on illegal recruiters. Since the Philippines' economy relies heavily on remittances from its citizens working overseas, it is clearly in that country's interests to sort out the situation quickly.
