Modern slaver

It’s nowhere close to being fatally stabbed multiple times and stuffed in a freezer for a year. Still, incurring an employer’s resentment for getting one day off a week and keeping your own passport should raise concern about the plight of overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait.

Sondos al-Qattan enjoys 2.3 million Instagram followers of her makeup tutorials. This week, cosmetics giant Max Factor’s regional office and several other beauty brands cut off ties or distanced themselves from the Kuwaiti blogger after she ranted in a July 10 video against new rules meant to promote the welfare of Filipinos working as domestic helpers in the Gulf state. She announced that she no longer wanted to have Filipino “servants” as a result.

Al-Qattan has remained unapologetic amid a social media backlash in which she has been likened to a modern slaver. She warned that she would urge her followers to boycott the brands that dumped her. She has stressed that she has not maltreated any “servant” and argued that parents keep their children’s passports, so why take it against employers if they hold on to the travel documents of migrant workers under their sponsorship? The controversy has stirred concerns about how prevalent such attitudes are toward OFWs not only in Kuwait but also in other countries that host migrant workers. The issue comes on the heels of a recent diplomatic row between the Philippines and Kuwait triggered by the discovery of the body of household helper Joanna Demafelis in a freezer in the Kuwait apartment that had been abandoned by her Lebanese and Syrian employers. The controversy also follows reports of suicides in the Gulf state by abused OFWs.

Bilateral ties are back on track and the Kuwaiti government, stressing its respect for human rights, has passed rules to enhance protection of migrant workers from various forms of abuses. Al-Qattan’s attitude toward OFWs, however, indicates the depth of resistance to reforms.

Discrimination and being treated like a personal possession of an employer are just among the many risks taken by Filipinos when working overseas. The attitude of Sondos alQattan should strengthen the resolve of Philippine policy makers to create an environment that will make it unnecessary for Filipinos to seek meaningful jobs in another country.