An Australian national has saved several abused overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kuwait by bringing them to the Philippine Embassy. He also employed some of them in his restaurant in Kuwait.
According to George Raphael, an Australian national who resides in the Gulf state, he has encountered a number of abused OFWs in his six years of stay in Kuwait.
Recently, Raphael was able to save an OFW after a video of the Filipina forced by her employer to wash windows in a high-rise building without any safety gear.
He was also able to help another Filipina who was nearly raped by multiple men in her employer’s home.
“Why? Are these goats? Sheeps? Lamb? Cows that she wants to sell?,” Raphael told GMA News.
Raphael has since left Kuwait and is currently in the Philippines to tell the stories of abuse toward OFWs in the Gulf state. He will return to Australia afterwards.
Meanwhile, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Wednesday that the Kuwaiti government has agreed to the conditions stated in the memorandum of agreement (MOU) with the Philippines, which aims to protect the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Gulf state.
Under the said MOU, employers can no longer confiscate cellphones and passport of OFWs. Moreover, “trading” of workers to different employers is also prohibited.
The agreement was made after the body of OFW Joanna Demafelis was discovered stuffed inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait. This prompted the Philippine government to impose deployment ban to the Gulf state.
Since the imposition of the ban, thousands of OFWs have repatriated to the Philippines.
