Manila acts on the abuse of maids and makes ban permanent

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday that a ban on Filipino workers from heading to Kuwait – that’s been in effect since February – would be permanent, inflaming a dispute about the abuse of Filipina housemaids and workers in the Gulf country.

Kuwait on Wednesday expelled the Philippine ambassador and recalled its own envoy. The highly unusual move came as a surprise in Kuwait, that has been both a target of Duterte’s criticism and heavily reliant on Filipina nannies and maids.

“The ban stays permanently,” Duterte said. “There will be no more recruitment for, especially, domestic helpers. No more.”

The two nations had been negotiating an end to the ban, which was imposed after the discovery in February of a Filipina stuffed in a freezer in Kuwait City.

But the arrest of two Filipinos associated with the embassy last week over allegedly convincing maids to flee their employers’ homes, and Ambassador Renato Villa’s comments appears to have been too much for Kuwait to accept.

Duterte said yesterday that Filipino workers in Kuwait could stay in the country, adding that the government would try to assist those who wish to return home.

“For the household workers whose employers want them to stay, that is their choice, but choose the better option,” he said. “All I ask is that the employers treat Filipinos with the humanity they deserve.”

There have been cases of abuse of Filipino domestic workers in the past, including an incident in 2014 where a Kuwaiti’s pet lions fatally mauled a Filipina maid.

Since becoming president, the populist Duterte has repeatedly criticised Kuwait for not properly addressing the abuse of Filipinos working there. – AP/African News Agency (ANA)