The Department of Migrant Workers in the Philippines today shut down a shipping company posing as a recruitment agency, reports The Manila Times. The DMW said the R.T.M. Maritime Consultancy Services Corp. does not have a valid license or accreditation from the department but received and processed applications and referred these to its partner staffing agency. RTM collected ‘consultation’ fees ranging from PHP 105,000 (USD 1,849) to as much as PHP 140,000 (USD 2,465) from applicants who were promised fake jobs as seafarers in Dubai.

Migrant Workers Officer-in-Charge Hans Cacdac said, “We cannot allow these unlicensed agencies posing as 'consultancy firms' to continue offering supposedly lucrative job postings to our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and goading them to pay excessive amounts of money. This is criminal and unconscionable.” The closure comes in the wake of email complaints sent to the DMW earlier this year.