The Department of Labor and Employment said on Wednesday, Feb. 14, that overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait who are currently on leave or on vacation in the Philippines can return to their jobs in the Gulf state if they want to.
As stated on Administrative Order No. 54, the deployment ban covers all types of workers being deployed for the first time for overseas employment in Kuwait, without distinction as to skill, profession or type of work.
The order has also enumerated the exceptions which are as follows:
- Workers who are vacationing in the Philippines and will be returning to the same employer to finish their contracts, at the end of his/her vacation;
- Balik Manggagawa workers who are returning to Kuwait on a new contract with the same employer; and
- Seafarers who will be transiting through or boarding in Kuwait to join their principals.
Follow the release of the order, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente said that, “With this development, there is no more obstacle and impediment for these ‘Balik Manggagawa’ OFWs to return to their jobs in Kuwait,” he said.
He also apologized to the new recruits who will be affected and will not be allowed to go to Kuwait.
“As for those who have just been recruited to work in Kuwait. We are sorry but we cannot let you leave,” the BI chief added.
With this, Morente instructed Marc Red Mariñas, BI port operations division chief, to ensure that the OFWs returning to the Arab state are properly documented and subjected to the usual immigration departure formalities.
He also said that Kuwait-bound Filipinos with short-term non-working visas will be allowed to depart as they are not covered by the ban.
Earlier, BI personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) were compelled to defer the departure of more than a hundred OFWs to Kuwait as they awaited the DOLE’s decision on their fate.
For his part, Mariñas ordered BI officers in all the ports to adopt stricter screening procedures and rigid inspection of all departing passengers.
“It is imperative that our immigration officers exercise extra vigilance in order to thwart attempts by the illegal recruiters and human trafficking syndicates to circumvent the ban by employing all sorts of dirty schemes,” the BI official said.
Source: DOLE with supporting reports from PNA
