THE government will continue giving aid to the family of Joanna Demafelis whose death in Kuwait prompted the Philippines to ban the deployment of workers to that country, an official said Sunday.
Hans Leo Cacdac, head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, said his agency will coordinate with Kuwait the extradition to that country of Demafelis’ employers, a Lebanese-Syrian couple who were tagged in her death.
He said his agency will fly Demafelis’ parents to Kuwait so they could monitor the court proceedings against the suspects.
Cacdac made his statement even as the Labor department said the government will urged the Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia and Qatar to return home for a chance to get employed in the Philippines or elsewhere abroad.
The department said it intended to do that through the establishment of a Job Fair Task Force that will conduct a special job fair and skills profiling of the Filipino workers based in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
In an administrative order issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the supply-demand profiling and skills-job matching will be jointly conducted by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and Bureau of Local Employment.
Cacdac also vowed financial aid for the education of slain Demafelis’ sister, the repair of their home in Iloilo and livelihood assistance to their family.
“We will continue supporting our Filipino workers including the Demafelis family. We will condole with them in their time of grief,” Cacdac told dzMM radio.
Demafelis, 29, was found in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait early in February, more than a year since she last had contact with her family here in the Philippines. Investigation found signs of abuse.
The ban on deploying Kuwait-bound workers will stay for despite the arrest of the suspects in Demafelis’ killing, Bello said last week.
Kuwait and Philippine officials are set to hold talks this week.
The rich oil-producing Gulf state, however, has yet to commit to signing an accord that will protect over 250,000 Filipino workers, many of whom are domestic workers.