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Friday, March 29, 2024

PH, Kuwait set talks on labor issues

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A high-level Philippine delegation is scheduled to fly to Kuwait next week to discuss the ban on Filipinos entering the Gulf state for the first time and the possible review of the 2018 labor agreement between the two countries.

“What we hope to achieve when we get there is to clarify the issues of why there was a visa suspension, what will it take to resolve these issues between the Philippines and Kuwait,” Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Paul Cortes said in a briefing on Saturday.

He said the ban and suspension of entry visa issuance were only formally communicated to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday, but Kuwait has yet to officially provide a reason behind its decision.

Kuwaiti media, however, said the ban stemmed from the Philippines’ alleged non-compliance with the 2018 labor accord concerning the operation of a temporary shelter for distressed Filipinos inside the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait.

Cortes, however, said Manila did not violate the deal if this was indeed Kuwait’s reason because the establishment of shelters inside the embassies, now known as Migrant Workers Overseas Filipino Resource Centers (MWOFRC), is mandated under Republic Act 8042 or the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.

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“We could not have agreed to a provision that will allow us not to establish a shelter for our countrymen because that’s our law.

Of course, whenever we have an agreement with another country, we always connect that with our domestic legislation,” he said.

He said the operation of these shelters abroad is non-negotiable, and would remain in operation regardless of the outcome of the upcoming talks.

“Our law is clear. We have to have a shelter for our kababayans,” he said.

Cortes said the DFA would also explain the deployment ban for household service workers (HSWs), which he believes could have been a “source of confusion” for the Kuwaiti side.

The ban only covers the contracts of first-time HSWs bound for Kuwait and was imposed in February after the brutal death of Jullebee Ranawa, whose charred remains were found in a desert in Kuwait this year.

Cortes said the meeting is timely as it was already set even before the issue of the entry ban came up.

The upcoming high-level talks, he said, are part of the regular discussions between the Philippines and Kuwait concerning the more than 290,000 overseas Filipinos there.

According to the DFA, around 70 percent of the OFWs in Kuwait are household workers.

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