Employment agencies and money-lending companies in the Philippines are cheating women applying for jobs abroad out of thousands of pounds…

Recruiters take applicants … to financial firms they have links with to take out loans to pay the fees, which come with interest rates often exceeding 130%...

Merry Criz Renayong … said she was told by the recruitment agency Rapid Manpower Consultants that she needed to pay $1,200 in medical and training fees when she applied for a job in Hong Kong in 2019.

When she said she could not afford to pay the fees, she said she was taken to the nearby offices of Hoya Lending Investor Corporation, where she signed a loan agreement. But she said: “I was not allowed to take a photo of the contract.”…

When Annabelle Gutierrez…applied for a job in Hong Kong through A&W International Manpower Services, she was informed she needed to take out a loan with Prosperity & Success Lending Investor Corporation…

Hoya Lending and Prosperity & Success declined to comment. Rapid Manpower and A&W did not respond to repeated requests for comment and neither did the Philippine SEC. The Department of Migrant Workers said it would provide a comment, but none has been received…