Jobseekers share how they were lured into Canada student visa ‘scam’
One applicant from the Philippines spoke of how he tried to get his money back immediately after being given a document he was meant to sign, stating that he could not ask for a refund whatever the outcome of his student visa application – to no avail.
Another in Hong Kong balked when told she needed to present her own proof as to why she had Php1 million pesos in her bank account –money the main recruiter had promised to lend applicants to show their capacity to pay for expenses while studying in Canada.
A third recounted how she had to withdraw all her savings, borrow from a friend, and pawn her jewelry just so she could pay the $18,700 processing fee to the recruiters, only to learn later on that she needed to pay hundreds of thousands of pesos more to get into any of the schools in their list.
A fourth spoke from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to share how he and his partner paid the Php104,000 asked by the recruiters during a recruitment drive in Ilocos Norte, only to be left stumped afterwards when told they needed to present proof of financial capacity to support their visa application.
These were among the stories shared by Filipino jobseekers during a press conference held on Sunday and organized by Migrante Hong Kong to draw attention to the student visa recruitment scheme offered by the Cebu-based PinoyCare Visa Center/Opportunities Abroad Visa Processing Services and its chief executive officer Prisca Nina Mabatid.
All the disgruntled applicants called on the Philippine government to take immediate action to stop what they said was a scam, and order the two companies and Mabatid to return their money.
Migrante International chairperson Joanna Concepcion said they now have 15 sworn affidavits from complainants in the Philippines and abroad to support the petition they filed with the Department of Migrant Workers and the National Bureau of Investigation on July 14.
These are apart from the 11 complainants in Hong Kong who had submitted their statements to the police and the Consulate earlier, on June 18 and 25.
All complainants are asking the DMW to hold PCVC-Opportunities Abroad, Nina Mabatid and others in her group, liable for large-scale illegal recruitment, despite their claim that they had offered only student visa processing.
Separately, the complainants in the Philippines are asking the NBI to prosecute the recruiters for syndicated estafa, which occurs when five or more people work together to gain money or property from unsuspecting victims through fraud or misrepresentations.
Both offences are non-bailable, and offenders face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Concepcion said she plans to ask for a meeting with DMW Undersecretary Hans Cacdac to discuss the complaints, noting his statement last week that there had been a rise in the number of recruiters enticing Filipino jobseekers to apply for student visas abroad instead.
USec Cacdac was appointed by Secretary Susan Ople to look into the alleged student visa scams which was initially brought to their attention by the Hong Kong victims, with help from the Mission for Migrant Workers.
In a new twist to the recruitment saga, Migrante International’s founding chairperson Connie Regalado revealed that the Cebu office shared by PCVC and Opportunities Abroad appears to have been shut, and their signage taken down.
Regalado said their search showed that Opportunities Abroad obtained a business permit only on March 16 this year, which meant that it had been operating without a licence when it conducted the relevant recruitment seminars, and collected money from the victims.
The complaints in Hong Kong stemmed from money collected within three days after Mabatid’s group held a recruitment seminar on February this year. The other complainants were recruited months earlier.
Source: The SUN HK : Jobseekers share how they were lured into Canada student visa ‘scam’ (sunwebhk.com)