Republic Act 9042 (RA 8042) or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act, states that a recruitment agency can charge a worker up to one month’s salary for recruitment fees, as outlined in the employment contract. Special guidelines also exempt household service workers and seafarers, who in 2015, comprised more than half of deployed OFWs, from paying any placement fees at all.

Despite this, the practice of charging placement fees at exorbitant rates remains to be a common practice in the Philippines.

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