Manila stops sending new workers to Kuwait

The Philippines government has started to strictly implement an order from President Rodrigo Duterte to stop accepting new workers destined for Kuwait as the first batch of workers repatriated from the Gulf emirate started to arrive.

“Our efforts to protect our kabayans [compatriots] will not end with the imposition of deployment bans or the repatriation of our workers in countries where they are prone to maltreatment,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Allan Peter Cayetano said in a statement yesterday.

Last week, Duterte immediately ordered a ban on sending workers to Kuwait as he expressed outrage over reports on the killing of Joanna Daniela Demafelis, a 29-year-old Filipina maid whose remains were found inside a freezer at an apartment in Kuwait.

Cayetano and Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III said both the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labour and Employment will implement the President’s instructions to ensure the protection of the rights and the promotion of the welfare of overseas Filipino workers not just in Kuwait but also in other parts of the world.

The deployment ban will only cover “new contracts” as Bello had stated before. It remains unclear if the government will totally prohibit sending workers to Kuwait to include those who had already been working in the emirate for years.

Yesterday morning, officials of the foreign affairs and labour departments, led by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola, received the first batch of 377 workers who were repatriated from Kuwait on Sunday afternoon.

Arriola said the Philippine Overseas Labour Office in Kuwait are now rushing to repatriate 10,000 Filipinos who are expected to avail an amnesty announced by Kuwait.