THE Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has ordered the total deployment ban of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to Kuwait and Iraq.
In Governing Board Resolution No. 1, series of 2020 signed and released on Jan. 3, the agency ordered to stop the processing and deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait following the violent death of a household worker.
The autopsy of Pinay worker Jeanelyn Villavende conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation showed she was sexually abused and tortured, Labor secretary Silvestre Bello said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in Governing Board Resolution No. 2, series of 2020 signed on Jan. 10 and released Jan. 14, POEA imposed another total deployment ban to Iraq amid tensions between the United States and Iran.
“Now, therefore, the POEA Governing Board in a meeting duly covered, resolves as it is hereby resolved, to impose a total deployment ban on the processing and deployment of all OFWs, including crew changes and shore leaves of Filipino seafarers in Iraq,” the order said.
The country last imposed a total deployment ban to the Gulf state in 2018 after Filipina migrant worker Joanna Demafelis was slain and discovered inside a freezer at an abandoned apartment. Her employer was then found guilty for her slay. (PNA, ABS-CBN News)
