The Philippine Government’s order to ban the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) to Kuwait left around 25,000 household service workers (HSW) in the country, whose contracts have already been approved in Kuwait by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).
Recruitment consultant Manny Geslani said that the HSW’s expenses on medical examinations as well as lodging were shouldered by recruitment agencies.
“And, while they are waiting, the agencies continue to pay for their housing accommodation, waiting for the go signal to proceed to Kuwait,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said that they will implement President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to prevent more workers from entering Kuwait after the reported abuses on Filipino workers in the country, which includes the case of slain OFW Joanna Demafelis, whose corpse was found by Kuwait authorities inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment.
The respective heads of the two agencies Foreign Secretary Alan Peter S. Cayetano and Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III vowed to strictly implement the President’s directives, in coordination with other concerned government offices, to ensure the protection of the rights and welfare of OFWs not only in Kuwait but also around the world.
“Our efforts to protect our kababayans will not end with the imposition of deployment bans or the repatriation of our workers in countries where they are prone to maltreatment,” Cayetano said. “We will also go after illegal recruiters, human traffickers and other modern-day slave traders who continue to victimize our people.”
Bello has also assured Filipino workers who would be repatriated from Kuwait and those who would be affected by the ban that they will be assisted by the government in finding alternative jobs in the Philippines and other foreign countries.
Over the years, Kuwait has been among the largest destination of Filipino HSW. In 2017, an average of 5,000 HSWs were deployed weekly, while in 2016, 57,061 of 105,000 of OFWs deployed comprised of HSWs.
