November 23, 2025 | 5:36pm
MANILA, Philippines — Adel En Nouri, an Italian national residing in London, and his alleged Philippine-based co-conspirators are facing three criminal charges filed by two Filipinos at the Tanauan City Prosecutor’s Office.
The complaint-affidavit was filed by two complainants on November 21, alleging that they were coerced, detained and forced into unauthorized labor after being promised high-paying jobs overseas by the Tamber International Placement Agency, which they claimed was unlicensed.
The complainants filed complaints of alleged serious illegal detention, illegal recruitment, and estafa against En Nouri and five others.
The complainants said they had only interacted with El Nouri, introduced to them as a corporate executive of Harrods in London, and another respondent through video calls.
According to the complainants, the respondents had allegedly worked together to lure them with promises of overseas employment, only to bring them to a location where they were forced to work as online recruiters and made to endure long work shifts against their will.
They also told authorities that they decided to file the complaint after escaping on Dec. 31, 2024, from the Tamber office in Tanauan City, citing fear for their safety.
It was at that point, they said, that they discovered Tamber International Placement Agency was not licensed by the Department of Migrant Workers to recruit or deploy Filipinos abroad.
“It was then that we learned that Tamber International Placement Agency does not have a license from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) to recruit or deploy Filipinos abroad,” the complaint read.
The complainants added that they learned about Tamber through its Facebook page and later met some of its personnel on Dec. 3, 2024.
Two Filipina respondents were the ones who discussed supposed job opportunities in the United Arab Emirates as restaurant staff, offering a promised monthly salary of P65,000 with free board and lodging, according to the complaint.
The two Filipina respondents also allegedly informed them that the total cost for the placement fee, airfare, and working visa would amount to P80,000 each. The complainants said they eventually paid the full amount, totalling P160,000.
The complainants said they were instructed by Tamber to report to the agency’s Tanauan City office on Dec. 21, 2024, for a weeklong “training,” which included doing online recruitment work for the company’s website.
According to their affidavit, they were allegedly ordered to surrender their cellphones and personal belongings upon arrival.
They recounted that En Nouri would call at the start of each shift to dictate their tasks and warned them that they were expected to work 18-hour days and comply with all applicant demands or risk forfeiting the money they had already paid.
Fearing they would lose their payment, the complainants said they felt compelled to follow the instructions given to them.
They further accused En Nouri and other respondents of subjecting them to repeated verbal abuse, harassment, and intimidation during their stay at Tamber. They added that the En Nouri brothers would often call only to reprimand them for failing to recruit more applicants.
On September 28, a criminal complaint of qualified trafficking in persons was also filed by three Filipinos against En Nouri.
Another complaint of illegal recruitment and qualified trafficking has also been filed against En Nouri and other individuals on October 23 before the Lipa prosecutor’s office.