Every day more than 20 workers seek shelter
Embassy sources told the daily that more than 20 female domestic workers arrive at the Philippine embassy seeking asylum every day. Most of these workers are registered absconders. Officials also informed that new accommodation has been found at Ibn Khaldun Street in Embassy Hawalli to house the increasing number of asylum seekers arriving at the embassy due to harassment, ill-treatment and insecurity at workplaces. Al-Qabas newspaper also reported that the Philippine Embassy has issued a letter to the concerned domestic worker recruitment offices requesting that the recruitment agencies return the amount due to the workers under the employment contract within three days. The embassy has also warned that the accreditation of the offices will be canceled if the representative of the company does not pay the money in person at the embassy. The report also states that the newspaper has received a copy of the letter
About a thousand people left Kuwait in two months
Meanwhile, there are reports that the number of Filipino domestic workers who are leaving the country due to employment problems is also increasing day by day. From January to March 20 this year, the number of Filipinos who left Kuwait reached 638. This is in addition to the 133 workers repatriated through the Deportation Center at the Philippine Embassy. This followed the murder of a Filipino domestic worker last January. The Philippine government had stopped sending workers to the country after the incident, saying its employees in Kuwait were unsafe. The Philippine government’s position is that recruitment can only be resumed if an employment contract is drawn up that includes strong safety standards.
The problem worsened after the murder of the employee
At the end of last January, the burnt body of a Filipino domestic worker, Julebi Ranara, was found in the desert of Kuwait. Powis arrested the Kuwaiti boy in the incident. The boy is a household member for whom they work. It is concluded that the woman was raped and killed. Postmortem report says that the woman is pregnant. There were also reports of bruises and cuts on various parts of the body. According to the police, the woman was killed to prevent her pregnancy from being revealed by rape and her body was burnt to avoid identification.
The employment contract with Kuwait will be rewritten
Migrant Workers Secretary of the Philippines, Susan Ople, had earlier said that they will subject the 2018 bilateral labor agreement with the Kuwaiti government to review. They also called for it to be rewritten to provide more protection for workers, similar to the bilateral agreement with Saudi Arabia. In March 2018, Kuwait and the Philippines signed an agreement containing provisions for domestic workers. This followed a two-month diplomatic crisis over reports of harassment and abuse by employers in Kuwait that had led many Filipinos to commit suicide. The new incident comes five years after Filipina domestic worker Joanna Daniela Demafelis was killed by her employer. The incident led to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and led to a temporary ban by then-President Rodrigo Duterte on the recruitment of workers from the Philippines to Kuwait.
Since 2016, 196 Filipino workers have died in Kuwait
Opley said he is seeking to introduce additional safeguards and reforms to the agreement to ensure better protection for Filipino workers going to Kuwait. The Foreign Workers Welfare Administration of the Philippines has recorded 196 deaths of Filipino workers in Kuwait since 2016. Since 2017, more than 6,000 cases of exploitation, sexual harassment and rape have been filed at the Philippine Embassy. Reports are that more Filipino workers will return to their homeland in the coming days. A campaign to withdraw workers from Kuwait is also underway under the leadership of the Philippine authorities.
