Grisly find in freezer leads to job boycott

PHILIPPINES: The Philippines has banned its citizens from travelling to work in Kuwait after the tortured body of a domestic worker was found in a freezer.

Joanna Demafelis, 29, was one of millions of Filipinos who travel to the Middle East to work as maids, hotel staff and construction workers.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said: ‘‘When will this inhuman treatment of our workers end? Every abuse committed against an OFW [overseas Filipino worker] is an affront against us, as a sovereign nation.’’

The Philippines government has promised to bring back any citizens who wish to leave Kuwait. Planes carrying the first 377 of them arrived in Manila yesterday. According to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, more than 2500 others are expected to return home within days.

Kuwait said it was exploring all ‘‘diplomatic channels’’ to challenge the decision.

Philippine diplomats say that

260,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait,

170,000 of them as domestic workers. Duterte claims that 120 have died in suspicious circumstances in the past year.

Demafelis travelled to Kuwait in

2014 to earn money to send home to her family. She was in intermittent contact with them until last February.

Her body was found last week in an abandoned apartment. She is thought to have been strangled. Her employer is said to have returned to Lebanon.