MANDALUYONG CITY – A bid to stomp out illegal recruitment in La Union province within a year got off on a slow start, with the nonprofit group leading this ambitious project bracing itself for “booby traps” along the way.

Marge Madiguid of Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc. said there was no formal launch yet for its “zero illegal recruitment campaign,” planned to start this June.

QUEZON CITY—FILIPINO workers, mostly women, in Lebanon are still being traded for new employees after getting sidetracked from work when fighting broke out in September, advocates said.

Echoing the report of Catholic congregation Daughters of Charity Sister Amelia Asiedu-Torres, nonprofit Kanlungan Centre Foundation Inc. said migrant workers unable to flee during the shooting war between Israeli and Hizbollah fighters are being sold to other employers.

MANILA—ANOTHER task force created by a government agency was met with skepticism by migrants’ rights advocates.

Reeling from reports of undocumented workers jumping to their deaths to escape abusive employers in Lebanon, Malacañang issued Executive Order 548 titled “Creating a Task Force against Illegal Recruitment (TFAIR) under the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO).”