Philippine job agencies cheating women with illegal fees and crippling loans

Domestic workers, many from overseas, at one of their regular Sunday gatherings in Tamar Park, Hong Kong. Photograph: Pau Villanueva/International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Employment agencies and money-lending companies in the Philippines are cheating women applying for jobs abroad out of thousands of pounds by charging illegal fees paid with high-interest loans, interviews and documents show.

Interviews with hundreds of women and thousands of pages of complaints compiled by a migrant rights organisation showed job agencies charged applicants training and medical fees that are above the legally allowed limit.