The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) called for a “concrete action” from the Kuwaiti government to address maltreatment suffered by Filipinos in their country.
Upon instructions by DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, the agency urged its counterparts to facilitate the early conclusion of a bilateral labor agreement on the protection of Filipino household service workers.
In a statement, DFA said it conveyed to Althwaik the Philippine’s “strongest protest over the abuses and maltreatment, labor violations and the failure of Kuwaiti authorities to provide protection to Filipino nationals”.
Meanwhile, Cayetano said the DFA and the Department of Labor and Employment will “strictly carry out” the president’s directive to prevent more workers from reaching the Gulf state.
Cayetano, who co-chairs the Government Cluster on OFWs with DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello III, said the two government agencies are also coordinating with other government agencies in taking steps to strictly implement the ban on the deployment of new workers to the Gulf state.
“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,” he said.
“We will also go after illegal recruiters, human traffickers and other modern-day slave traders who continue to victimize our people.”
Raul Dado, Executive Director for the DFA-Office of Migrant Workers Affairs, said “records show that abuses in Kuwait have persisted in spite of the Philippine government’s effort to prosecute perpetrators of abuse and to negotiate a bilateral labor agreement.”
Dado said Kuwait has a draft of the bilateral labor agreement but has not signed it yet, as he added that a positive development from recent events is that Kuwait would be made to negotiate from the strong position that President Rodrigo Duterte has taken on the issue.
The warning of a total deployment ban to Kuwait floated in January following the case of seven Filipino household workers who reportedly died due to employers’ abuse.
Weeks later, another death of a Filipina in Kuwait was cited after the government confirmed the identity of the body discovered inside a freezer, believed to have been stored for over a year.
