Local Help

[Phate_HK]

A friend of mine got into some trouble in Singapore and I would like to request your help on this.
Basically she signed some contract in the Philippines to work for a week for some 'Wine Bar', basically entertaining customers - that and no more. The company would provide her the ticket and she was told she could pay of the cost with the salary of too working days easily. Once arrived these costs came up to about 1,500SGD.
An expensive ticket, really. She know has to pay this off, while earning some 50SGD a day. They are keeping her passport so she can't leave the country.
Now, these schemes are nothing new and I truly wonder how she could get into that. Personally I think she got lucky not to get on a company that actually expects her to do more than just entertaining customers.
Either way, I know this girl personal for quite some time. I will help her pay that amount and as well for a ticket back home. Unfortunately I won't be able to go there myself as I'm scheduled for a flight to Germany tomorrow.

I have no contacts in Singapore, but I trust that the community here is something like the one we have in HK.
I hope that someone from here is able to help her out of this mess. I will cover the financial part, but I would feel better if someone over there would lend me a hand and makes sure she gets everything settled and gets her on a plane pack to the Philippines.

please give me your suggestions on this, hopefully someone of you is willing to help out here

Thanks,
Phate

[Asian_Geekette]

Hi,

Please do try to get at least 5 posts here in the Forum so you can reply to a PM.

What your friend needs to do is to make sure she does get her passport first before you can buy her a ticket. She has to make sure she pays off that ridiculous 1,500 agency fee or something. What kind of help are you asking for? Does your friend need someone to help her talk to the bar owner to get her passport back?

[zjules]

hmm, unfortunately this is pretty common here in SG. I have a few work colleagues from Philippines and they have met several girls in the same situation. It seems the work they are promised is quite 'different' to what they are promised back at home, and yes, they pay back well over $1000 for a $300 flight. Once they are here theres nothing they can do really, and 'entertaining customers' is open to your own interpretation.
Also, they are all being employed illegally, and it seems a blind eye is turned to this... Good luck.

[Asian_Geekette]

I wanted to send this as a PM but I'll just post the info about the Philippine embassy below. I suggest that if your friend can not get her passport, she should just go to the embassy and ask for their help. If she's not being held against her will, she can just go to the Phil embassy and ask that she be issued a new passport. She can explain what happened to her. She should also file a complaint against the recuiter who recruited her back home. Since you'd be helping her financially, she shouldn't have any trouble going back home.

Sadly, there are a lot of recruiters in the Philippines recruiting girls and then sending them to other countries to do a very different job from the one which they were told to be doing.

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
20 Nassim Road, Singapore 258395
Tel. no. (65) 6737-3977
Fax no. (65) 6733-9544
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Open to the public from Sundays to Thursdays
9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Visitors are requested to come appropriately attired (no shorts, please).

The Embassy is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and on Philippine and Singapore-declared holidays. Filipino nationals requiring emergency assistance may call the Duty Officer at telephone no. (65) 6737-3977. After 5:30 p.m., daily, the Duty Officer can be reached at mobile phone no. (65) 9072-2797.

[jpatokal]

I'm fairly sure it's illegal for the employer to hold employees' passports, but this is still a common practice. If you reported it to the police and they were cooperative (which I doubt), her employer will certainly not appreciate the legal attention and will probably fire her on some excuse --> in which case her working pass will become invalid and she'll have to leave without a penny to show.