THE Philippine government has ordered the partial lifting of the deployment ban on Filipino workers to Kuwait days after the signing of an agreement to protect them in the Gulf state, Malacañang said Tuesday.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the Philippines could now deploy skilled and semi-skilled workers to Kuwait as a result of the labor pact signed by the two countries last Friday.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara said the government’s action was a step in the right direction as it brought the diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Kuwait back to normal.
He said that would guarantee the safety and welfare of the Filipinos working in Kuwait.
“We hope that our government will remain steadfast in ensuring that the labor rights of all Filipinos working abroad, especially domestic workers, are upheld and protected at all times,” Angara said.
Among the key features of the Philippines’ agreement with Kuwait are the provision for food, housing, clothing and the registration in the health insurance system for domestic workers, as well as the use of cellular phones so that the Filipinos could communicate with their relatives in the Philippines.
An employer is also obliged to open a bank account under the domestic worker’s name to allow the worker to remit his or her monthly salary to relatives in the Philippines.
Roque said the ban on the deployment of household service workers would “eventually be lifted.”
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has said reforms will be implemented on the recruitment of Filipino workers before the ban on their deployment is lifted. Macon Ramos-Araneta
President Rodrigo Duterte in February imposed the deployment ban on newly hired Filipino workers to Kuwait due to abuses, among them the killing of Joanna Demafelis whose body was found inside a freezer in an apartment previously occupied by her employers.
Negotiations for the deal followed, which nearly fell through following the controversial rescue of distressed Filipinos by the Philippine Embassy staff last month.
Videos of the rescue of Filipinos by Philippine diplomatic staff from their Kuwaiti employers circulated in the media, angering the Kuwaiti government that viewed it as a violation of its sovereignty and slammed what it called as “inappropriate behavior” by the diplomatic staff.
Kuwait also expelled Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa and recalled its envoy in Manila.
Duterte sent some of his officials to Kuwait last week to thresh out issues, which culminated in the signing of a labor pact advancing the protection and welfare of the Filipinos in the Gulf state.
Some 260,000 Filipinos live and work in Kuwait, and they are mostly housemaids, according to government estimates.
