MANILA – The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) approved a resolution imposing total deployment ban to Kuwait following the death of another Filipina migrant worker there last December.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said late Wednesday he has recommended the total ban to the POEA from the initial declaration of partial deployment ban.
Bello said this move comes after it was revealed in the autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that Jeanelyn Villavende was sexually abused and tortured.
NBI’s autopsy report further revealed that Villavende’s brain, heart, and some internal organs were missing; and that she also suffered multiple, severe traumatic injuries including genitalia injuries –an indication that she was sexually abused.
An embalming certificate from the Kuwait government has confirmed that Villavende, who was reportedly beaten “black and blue”, died of “acute failure of heart and respiration” as a result of shock and multiple injuries in the vascular nervous system.
The Philippine government previously imposed a total deployment ban to the Gulf state in 2018 after Ilongga migrant worker Joanna Demafelis was slain and discovered inside a freezer at an abandoned apartment there.
President Rodrigo Duterte in response demanded to the Kuwaiti government on the proper treatment of Filipino domestic helpers.
The two countries settled their differences by signing a deal to provide better protection for Filipino migrant workers in Kuwait./PN
