Lawmaker’s resort company blacklisted from recruiting Filipinos

MP Abdulla Jabir’s resort company has been banned by the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration from hiring Filipino workers.

Yacht Tours Maldives was among several foreign recruiters and employers blacklisted by the regulator on Sunday for violating rules, the Philippines media reported. The disqualifications were aimed at “cleansing the industry” to protect the rights and welfare of Filipinos working abroad, officials said.

Jabir, MP for the Kaashidhoo constituency, is chairman of Yacht Tours.

About 3,000 Filipinos work in the Maldives, predominantly on resort islands in the tourism industry.

An estimated 63,000 foreign nationals work in the Maldives illegally out of a migrant worker population of 144,607.

Last year, the Maldives was downgraded on a United States watchlist for human trafficking over the failure to meet minimum standards for elimination.

“Recruitment agents in source countries collude with employers and agents in Maldives to facilitate fraudulent recruitment and forced labour of migrant workers,” according to the 2018 trafficking in persons report.