Philippines lifts ban for Kuwait-bound workers

MANILA — The Philippines on Wednesday lifted its ban on migrant workers heading to jobs in Kuwait, capping a diplomatic row sparked when a murdered Filipina maid was found in her employer’s freezer.

The news comes days after Kuwait and the Philippines signed a deal to regulate and protect the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who seek higher-paid employment in the wealthy Gulf state.

The spat, simmering for months, reached its lowest point in April when Kuwaiti authorities expelled Manila’s envoy over videos showing embassy staff helping Filipino workers flee allegedly abusive bosses in Kuwait.

“President (Rodrigo Duterte) directed me to lift the ban totally... both for the domestic and skilled professionals,” Labour Secretary

President (Rodrigo Duterte) directed me to lift the ban totally... both for the domestic and skilled professionals Silvestre Bello, Labour Secretary

Silvestre Bello said. “The president deemed that our overseas workers are protected in Kuwait and he will no longer see incidents of maltreatment, hopefully.”

Around 262,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, nearly 60 per cent of them domestic workers, according to the Philippine foreign ministry.

They are among the millions of its citizens the Philippines has sent to work abroad, seeking salaries they cannot get in their relatively impoverished nation. The money they send back home accounts for about 10 per cent of the Philippine economy.

Duterte in February prohibited workers from heading to Kuwait when domestic helper Joanna Demafelis’s corpse was discovered in a freezer in her employer’s home.

The president lashed out at Kuwait, alleging Arab employers routinely rape Filipina workers, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.

Relations appeared to recover after a Kuwaiti court sentenced to death in absentia a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife for Demafelis’s killing.

Following the verdict, Duterte announced plans to visit Kuwait to seal an agreement on workplace safety guarantees for the Filipinos working in the Gulf nation.