Speaker 1:

This is where Britain's nursing crisis is being solved, in the Philippines. Fourteen thousand nurses were recruited in the past year alone. More come from here than anywhere else. But it's a country still racked by some of the worst poverty on Earth. In places there's little or no healthcare system at all, and the max exodus of highly trained nurses is cutting deeply into what remains.

These nurses are not always just general, many of them are highly skilled specialists. And yet, we've been told of, for example, burns units, or intensive care wards which have lost not just one or two members of their staff, but entire nursing teams.

But the Philippine government is willing to sacrifice its badly needed healthcare provision in return for the even more desperately needed hard currency the nurses send home from abroad. Yet what seemed like a win/win situation, the Philippines needs the money, we need the nurses, is now beginning to go very wrong. Almost overnight it spawned an industry of recruitment companies who are creaming off large sums of money in double charged fees, and dubious expenses. Not only from the nurses, but also the British hospitals, and the Philippine economy itself.

Speaker 2:

We've been receiving complaints like collection of excessive fees, that is the placement fees. Also contract violation, some of harassment.

And since this is very new, very new market, we want immediately establish right away the causes of the problems.

Speaker 1:

In Britain the union Unison is now receiving more than 30 complaints a week from Filipino nurses. It's no doubt about where the problem lies.

Speaker 3:

I think a lot of blame has to be set at the door of the recruitment companies, the agencies. They're exploiting the situation and there's no doubt about that. We need to see the government taking a closer look at these agencies, and ensuring that there is no potential for this type of exploitation.

Speaker 1:

Marie Theresa, not her real name, was one of 90 nurses recruited last year for St. Georges hospital in south London. But her delight rapidly turned to shock when she was charged 2,000 pounds in fees and expenses.

Maria:

It's painful in my case that oh, my Lord, I need to pay this certain amount just to work abroad. And I don't even know what's the type of job I'll be with in abroad.

Speaker 1:

Maria Theresa was recruited in Manila by this firm, World Care International. We sent two nurses undercover to see how the process works. World Care was obviously proud of its association with St. Georges. The agency's president, Lenny Pasquale, told them that they would have to pay fees upfront of about 1200 pounds. Under Filipino law, she is allowed to charge a fee of one month's UK starting salary. But Maria Theresa earned far less when she arrived here.

Maria:

If she is allowed by the Philippine government to charge us one month salary, she should only charge us less than 700 pounds. Because that's the amount, that's the pay that we will receive during our first couple of months.

Speaker 1:

After paying the full amount, Maria Theresa was horrified to discover that some of the money that she paid went to covering the hotel bill of the British recruiter when he came to Manila.

This hotel accommodations ... quite high considering how many nurses would be funding this.

Speaker 5:

Five thousand. Because sometimes the hotel accommodation is not only in the three star. We also book [inaudible] at the five star hotel.

Maria:

I feel cheated, and it's very, very unfair on our part because when we apply for this job, we did not ... we don't want, we don't want them to stay in five star hotel if we are thinking that we will be the one to pay for it. We'd rather stay them in a dormitory or in a boarding house, it's cheaper. Because if we know that we are the ones who pay for this, well, you could stay in my house, it's free in there.

Speaker 1:

This is the Philippine's government agency tasked with protecting almost a million Filipino contract workers going abroad each year, and this is the director of their adjudication office who investigates rogue recruiters.

Jaime Jimenez:

If this refers to the hotel accommodation, the food in UK-

Speaker 1:

No, here in the Philippines.

Jaime Jimenez:

The Philippines, this is not allowed.

Speaker 5:

Most of this are far and for Georges representatives.

Speaker 1:

So Mr. [inaudible] for instance is paid for, when he comes here-

Speaker 5:

I do, because-

Speaker 1:

The nurses pay his hotel bill.

Speaker 5:

Not the nurses, from me. From me, because that is the placement fee. I advance. I advance our expenses.

Speaker 1:

But who paid the placement fee?

Speaker 5:

The nurses.

Speaker 1:

World Care is jointly accredited with this Coventry based agency, Trust More. When we tried to speak to its managing director, George [inaudible], he was reluctant, but he did issue this statement.

Speaker 7:

I pay for own hotel and other expenses whilst in the Philippines. Either Mrs. Pasquale is lying, or you are misquoting here.

Speaker 1:

St. George's has said they believed the fee of 1500 pounds per nurse that they'd paid Trust More covered all pre-recruitment costs in Manila, and that there was no question the nurses should've been charged. They added they do not intent to use Trust More in the future.

But the Philippine government is now so concerned that its nurses are being exploited, it's revising its regulations to make it harder for Filipino agencies to rack up unfair fees, and they can and do suspend agencies if they suspect they're abusing the system.

Jaime Jimenez:

We feel that we should not allow them to operate while we are investigating this case. So they are on preventive suspension right now.

Speaker 1:

Channel 4 News has learned that two out of three suspended are perhaps the biggest players in the market. ADD of Manila, and Drake International of London are under suspension while the Philippine government investigates and alleged scam involving dozens of faked contracts.

In 1999, 130 nurses were recruited to work in a Surrey NHS hospital. Although neither the nurses nor the hospital knew it, the conditions of work did not meet the Philippine government's minimum requirements. The nurses' starting salary was too low, and they had to pay their own airfares.

Gilbert:

After we're picked to go, it took us a year before I be deployed here UK, and they told us there's something wrong with our papers.

Speaker 1:

Gilbert and 41 other nurses are alleging that the agencies were not willing to lose NHS business, thereby risking hundreds of thousands of pounds in recruitment fees. So instead of asking the hospital to meet the minimum requirements, they merely switched contracts, ensuring the nurses were able to leave the Philippines for the UK.

Gilbert now feels shortchanged knowing that his starting salary should've been much higher. The hospital says it had nothing to do with what they call the bogus contract, and are astonished that their genuine offer was unacceptable.

Both ADD and Drake vehemently deny faking contracts. But when we sent our nurses undercover to ADD's offices, we found little evidence they were complying with their suspension.

They were given this leaflet advertising immediate interviews with three NHS trusts, and told to take their place in the queue behind dozens of other nurses hoping to come to the UK.

We showed this evidence to the government adjudicator, Jaime Jimenez.

Are they allowed to be doing that?

Jaime Jimenez:

They are not allowed to do that, because their licence is under suspension.

Speaker 1:

Can I confirm that you will be investigating this further?

Jaime Jimenez:

Yes. We have units here operating to conduct surveillance. At the same time, we draw a presentation of this, then we will have to conduct a [inaudible] inspection.

Speaker 1:

We found ADD president, Emiliano [inaudible] at this Manila Bay hotel. He would not comment on the bogus contract because of the ongoing investigation. But he said that although ADD was suspended, he thought there was nothing wrong in interviewing recruits.

Do these hospitals know that you can't actually send them nurses at this stage of the game?

Emiliano:

I think so. I think Drake has informed them that.

Speaker 1:

But that's what the trusts told us. Two denied knowledge of the suspensions, and one said they'd only been told there was a little local difficulty. In fact, staff from one of the hospitals was even in Manila as we were speaking to ADD at some considerable expense to themselves.

Tony Blair's magic figure of 20,000 new nurses by 2004 can only be achieved by continuing to take nurses from the Philippines. And the British government is in the process of drawing up new guidelines on international recruitment. But we have been told there's been no consultation with the Philippines government, and that's clearly what now needs to happen, so rogue agencies in both countries can be put out of business.

Maria:

I want this process, sort of situation, to stop. Because if this will not be stopped ... if this process of recruitment will continue, could you imagine, a lot of Filipinos will suffer.