The Philippines passed a “total ban” on its citizens who want to work in Kuwait.
Silvestre Bello III, Philippine Labor Minister, announced the prohibition just days after President Rodrigo Duterte showed images of a Filipina maid’s body found inside a freezer in a Kuwait apartment. In Januray, there were several cases of maltreated Filipinas in the gulf country. Kuwait is home for over 250,000 Filipino workers.
“With the advents of the series of reports involving abuses and deaths of overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait, a total ban on deployment of all overseas workers… is hereby enforced,” said Bello.
The labor minister clarified that workers who have stable jobs and do not want to leave will not be forced to quit their jobs and return to the country. “Only those who want to go home and those who really have to should leave,” Bello clarified.
Bello stated that free charter flights Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific were ready to repatriate workers. He added that 2,200 Filipinos were ready to accept the President’s offer to leave Kuwait. Around 500 OFWs are expected to arrive in the Philippines soon.
Renato Villa, Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait, referred to the ban as an “Alert Level 4” which meant even Filipinos who were on their annual vacation will no longer be permitted to return to Kuwait.
Meanwhile, Kuwait’s ministries of interior and foreign affairs assured the Philippine Embassy that a manhunt was already underway to arrest the killer of the Filipina domestic worker. The remains of Joanna Daniela Demaflis, 29 years old, were found in the freezer of an apartment in Maidan Hawally only after police entered the premises because of a court order. Reports indicate her body had been kept in the chiller for over a year. The unit was rented by Nader Essam Assaf and his wife. The couple were said to have left Kuwait on November 2016.
Sources from the Civil Aviation Directorate indicated that 410 Filipinos in Kuwait left last Sunday. Of these, 60 were for annual holiday and 350 were said to be illegal residents. There are around 10,000 Filipinos staying in Kuwait illegally and are expected to leave when the amnesty ends on February 22.
Despite the circumstances, the interior ministry denied social media reports that Filipino domestic workers were being arrested by police and sent to the embassy for deportation.
