MANILA – The partial deployment ban of Filipino household service workers to Kuwait could be lifted once the Kuwaiti employer of murdered Filipina worker Jeanelyn Villavende will be slapped with charges.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a television interview that Kuwait Ambassador to the Philippines Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh have promised to file charges against the culprits.
“He (Kuwaiti Ambassador) asked me until Monday for the charge to be filed. I told the ambassador that the moment the charge is filed, then I can lift the partial deployment ban,” Bello said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
“If they charge the suspects – ‘yung couple, then there is a reason for us to lift the partial deployment ban. But if they do not charge, then this may rise into a total deployment ban,” he added.
The partial deployment ban of new household service workers has been in effect since Friday after the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration signed the directive.
The ban covered all newly-hired Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait. Those whose exit permits that were issued on or before the afternoon of Jan. 3 may still be allowed to go.
Philippines in February 2018 also implemented a total deployment ban of Filipino workers to Kuwait amid numerous cases of Filipino nationals’ deaths, including that of Ilongga Joanna Demafelis. The ban was lifted in May that year.
The incidents led to a crafting of a labor deal between the two countries, which aims to protect Filipino workers in the Gulf state. Bello, however, lamented that some provisions of the agreement have not been followed, including the drafting of a template employment contract that would allow Filipinos to keep their passports and cellphones which are often surrendered to employers./PN
