Kuwait invites Duterte to visit amid workers row

KUWAIT HAS invited Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte to visit, state news agency KUNA said on Monday, as the countries seek to settle their differences over allegations of extreme abuse of migrant workers in the wealthy Gulf state.

After the body of a Filipino was discovered in a freezer in a Kuwait apartment, Mr. Duterte arranged free flights for workers wishing to leave — an evacuation that Kuwait said was an unnecessary escalation of a diplomatic rift.

The Philippines suspended sending workers to Kuwait in January after reports that abuse by employers had driven several to suicide.

Two planes full of workers arrived in Manila from Kuwait last week on flights provided for free by commercial airlines at the President’s request. The Philippine Labor secretary has said more than 2,200 Filipinos were ready to take up the offer to be repatriated.

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid al-Jarallah said on Monday that the two countries had agreed to sign a deal to regulate working conditions.

“We proposed to the Philippine authorities to resolve and contain these issues and not to escalate them in the media. There was agreement on this...and we received a response,” he was quoted as saying.

It was not immediately clear if Mr. Duterte had accepted Kuwait’s invitation for him to visit in early March.

In his briefing on Tuesday, Presidential Spokesperson Herminio Harry L. Roque, Jr. said, “I have no information that the President has accepted the invitation. I know there’s an invitation extended but I know ministerial talks are ongoing. Ministerial talks have to do with ( a) bilateral agreement safeguarding the plight of our overseas workers in Kuwait.”

“But I do not have information if the invitation has been accepted and this is as of yesterday around 5:30 p.m., when I had a conversation with both Secretary Alan Cayetano and the Secretary of Labor,” he added.

Mr. Roque further clarified: “The language used was they prefer that if there’s a visit, there would be already a bilateral agreement in place. But that’s not made into a condition. It’s a preference.” — main report by