Overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Joanna Demafelis had shown signs of being beaten by her employers several months before her dead body was discovered in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, a fellow OFW revealed.
The OFW, who refused to be named, shared that Demafelis told her experiences of physical abuse in the hands of her employers, a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife, to her and other friends way back September 2016.
“‘Yung September na ‘yun nag-usap-usap na kami ng kaibigan ko sa harap nila na tutulungan na namin siyang patakbuhin. Sabi niya ayaw niya kasi takot siya,” the OFW said in an interview with GMA News.
Months later, the worst thing they worry about happened as the body of Demafelis, 29, was found by Kuwaiti authorities inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment.
“Nakaupo [siya] na parang nakatagilid siya na kasya lang siya sa [loob] freezer. Natatakpan siya kasi maliit ang freezer, hindi malaki,” described the OFW, who works in a nearby apartment.
The incident and other abuses on OFWs in Kuwait prompted Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to ban the deployment of Filipino workers to the country.
Kuwait authorities already coordinated with Interpol in tracking down the victim’s employers.
