Kuwait regrets Duterte’s remarks

kuwait city — Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al Jarallah on Friday expressed regret over the remarks made by the Philippines President, Rodrigo Duterte, regarding the treatment of the Filipino community in Kuwait, reported the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

Affirming that the two countries have maintained excellent relations, Al Jarallah specified that his department had immediately contacted the Philippines authorities to clarify the intentions behind the president’s statement and correct the specious information.

The Filipino population in Kuwait has exceeded 170,000, hence the four cases mentioned in the president’s statement “cannot be used as a criterion to assess the overall status of the Philippine labourers in the country,” he said.

Legal measures had been initiated in case of the four Filipinos, Al Jarallah added.

Kuwait enjoys “a bright image in treating the expatriate workers and has laws that preserve their rights and organise their relations with the employers,” the deputy foreign minister said.

Kuwait’s laws and regulations protect expatriates against any attacks or abuse and this fact has turned it into a favoured destination of work for various peoples, KUNA added.

Meanwhile, the Philippines suspended sending workers to Kuwait on Friday.

Philippine Labour Secretary Silvestre Belo said no more Overseas Filipino Workers would be sent to Kuwait “pending investigation of the causes of deaths of about six or seven of our OFWs”. He did not refer to specific cases or say when the deaths took place.

Duterte, who is hugely popular among the Filipino diaspora, said on Thursday the Philippines had “lost four women” in Kuwait, referring to domestic helpers he said had been abused and committed suicide.

There are more than 250,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, the Philippine foreign ministry estimates, most working as domestic helpers.

More than 2.3 million Filipinos are documented as working abroad.

Collectively they remit more than $2 billion of their income back to the Philippines every month, money that fuels robust consumer spending in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. — Wam, Reuters