Senator Joel Villanueva has asked the Department of Labor and Employment to come up with a contingency plan for the overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait in case of total deployment ban.
Sen. Villanueva, chairperson of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development, said that the Philippine government should be ready for the return of OFWs from Kuwait once President Rodrigo Duterte decides to repatriate all of them, reported Inquirer.
“We support the President’s deployment ban to Kuwait but we believe that this move must be accompanied with review and implementation of strict regulation,” Villanueva said in a statement on Saturday.
Last Saturday, DOLE Sec. Silvestre Bello III assured that the government is ready for the return of overseas Filipino workers who will be affected by the possible deployment ban in Kuwait.
“I hope it will not (happen). But if the ban pushes through, I think we are ready in case OFWs will return home because there are alternative markets for them like China. For our medical workers, there is Canada and United Kingdom,” he said.
Villanueva also made mention of the number of abuses of OFWs which were recorded in 2016 based on DOLE’s reports. The said report has recorded 1,447 cases of maltreatment, 2,959 cases of contract violation, 227 sexual abuses and 63 cases of rape of Filipino workers.
“We are calling on the government agencies concerned, especially Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, to double their efforts to protect the safety and welfare of our kababayans abroad and to immediately and effectively settle the cases of abuse being faced by our afflicted OFWs,” he said.
The deployment ban was imposed following the deaths of seven OFWs in Kuwait.
Sec. Bello also said that these seven cases are now being investigated by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO).
President Rodrigo Duterte previously said that if another case of Filipino being abused in the said Arab country happens, he would not hesitate to impose a total deployment ban.
