Kuwait City: The Philippines has imposed a total ban on the deployment of newly-hired workers to Kuwait, including domestic helpers, skilled and unskilled labourers.
The Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) slammed the ban based on results of a post mortem conducted on the remains of Filipina maid Jeanelyn Villavende in Manila.
“Villavende was not just heavily tortured in Kuwait, but also sexually abused, which is contrary to the brief autopsy report of the Kuwaiti health ministry,” the POEA decision said.
The autopsy also found Villavende’s brain and heart were removed before sending her body to Manila.
In response to the Philippine ban, Kuwaiti Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mariam Al Aqeel said Kuwait should change its policies and allow recruitment of domestic helpers from countries such as Nepal, Ethiopia, India and Indonesia instead of only one or two countries. Around 750,000 domestic helpers are currently working in Kuwait.
In February 2018, the Philippines government had announced a total ban on all Filipino workers to Kuwait after the body of Joanna Demafelis, a 29-year-old maid, was found in the freezer of her employers’ house in Hawally. The ban was lifted after the two countries agreed to sign bilateral agreements on domestic help concerns.
The killing of Villavende is the latest in a series of abuses faced by Filipino workers in the Middle East, the main destination for about 3,000 Filipinos who leave the country daily on temporary foreign work permits.
Women tend to work as domestic workers while men are mostly employed in construction and other sectors. Around 10 million Filipinos are migrant workers overseas and their remittances account for more than 10 per cent of the country’s GDP, Kuwait Times reported.