What happened
The people in these photographs are not one group. They are dozens of send-offs across thirty days — each group hired by a different employer, each with its own employment contract, permit and start date — photographed at the last step before boarding: documents in hand at the Prime Search office in Makati. Two hundred and seventeen of them left in September, for five countries and five permit systems: the Czech Employee Card, Italy's nulla osta under the Decreto Flussi, Slovakia's single permit, Lithuania's temporary residence permit on the basis of work, and the United Kingdom's sponsored Skilled Worker route.
Every departure is the end of a sequence that started months earlier: a brief from the employer, sourcing from the Prime Search candidate base, a practical trade test, the employer's interview and selection, an employment contract verified by the Migrant Workers Office with jurisdiction for the destination, the destination permit, medical examination at a DOH-accredited clinic, document authentication, pre-departure orientation and the Overseas Employment Certificate. Nobody in these photographs is employed by an agency; each signed with the company they will work for, before leaving.
September also shows what a continuous pipeline looks like. In the same thirty days, in the same building, 25 employers from four countries recruited 629 positions over 39 recruitment days — the workers who will appear in a photograph like this one in the coming months. The departures and the recruitment overlap by design: the interview calendar does not stop for the send-offs, and the send-offs do not wait for the calendar.
For an employer the number that matters is not 217 but the one that stands behind each face: one line of accountability from the interview in Manila to the first shift on site. Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency in Manila; on the European side delivery runs through the group's licensed EU entity where its licence applies, and under the licensing and immigration rules of each destination everywhere else.
Between January and September 2026 the same operation completed 100 employer projects and recruited 1,800 workers for Europe. September's 217 departures are the month those projects turned into arrivals.
The route every worker in this cohort took
- Employer brief — roles, headcount, destination country; feasibility and route confirmed.
- Sourcing from Prime Search's own candidate base; practical trade tests at the Makati facilities.
- Employer interviews — on site in Makati, live online, or from recorded tests; the employer selects.
- Employment contract with the employer, signed and verified by the Migrant Workers Office for the destination.
- Destination-country permit — Employee Card, nulla osta, single permit, temporary residence permit or Skilled Worker visa — coordinated by us under the rules of each country.
- Medical, document authentication, pre-departure orientation, Overseas Employment Certificate.
- Send-off in Makati, flight, onboarding with the employer.
Where they went
Roles interviewed
Source: Published by Prime Search Manpower Agency on Facebook, October 2026.