Kuwait expels PH envoy amid maid abuse dispute

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait expelled on Wednesday, April 25, the Philippines ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Manila over a growing diplomatic dispute sparked by complaints of the abuse of Filipina housemaids and workers in the country.

The highly unusual move came as a surprise in the typically sedate and oil-rich Gulf Arab nation, both a long target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s criticism and heavily reliant on Filipina nannies and maids.

The two nations had been negotiating an end to the Philippines’ ban on workers from heading there following the shocking discovery in February of a Filipina stuffed into a freezer in Kuwait City for over a year.

But the arrest of two Filipinos associated with the embassy earlier this week over allegedly convincing maids to flee their employers’ homes and Ambassador Renato Villa’s comments reported in local media over the effort appears to have been too much for Kuwait to accept.

“Expelling the ambassador of the Philippines is a correct measure that should have been taken when the Philippines president first started his threats,” conservative Kuwaiti lawmaker Shuaib al-Muwaizri wrote on Twitter. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should not accept any offers made by the Philippines president or his foreign affairs secretary.”

The Philippines called Kuwait’s decision “deeply disturbing,” saying it “re-

neged” on an earlier agreement to work together.

“In discussions at every level with Kuwait, the Philippines has always emphasized that the wellbeing of Filipino nationals wherever they may be will always be of paramount importance,” the Philippines Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement.

In its own statement, Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry accused the Philippines’ mission in Kuwait City of a “flagrant and grave breach of rules and regulations that govern diplomatic action where staff helped Filipina house helpers run away.”

The ministry also said it had declared Villa, who it previously summoned twice, persona non grata and had ordered him to leave Kuwait within a week. AP