MANILA: The Philippines government said Wednesday that it was in talks with Kuwait to seek a resolution over recent labour and travel issues, after the Gulf state suspended issuing new visas for Filipinos.
The Philippines has been working on resolving the issues concerning its migrant workers in Kuwait, triggered by the gruesome murder of a domestic worker Jullebee Ranara that prompted Manila to suspend the deployment of first-time workers to the Arab nation in February. A Philippine delegation is in Kuwait this week to discuss bilateral labour concerns and seek clarification over visa suspension announced last week by Kuwait.
“Talks are resuming today,” The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs’ Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Eduardo De Vega told Arab News. “What we’re bringing on the table is a reassurance [from Kuwait] that we want to resolve the pending issues for the benefit of our workers and the mutual benefit of both the nations.”
The Philippines wants to hear Kuwaiti side while also explaining its view point on the ongoing issues, “so that we could lift the suspension” on first-time worker deployment to Kuwait, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs’ Undersecretary for Migrant Workers said. “We want to settle these differences and we don’t want this as a permanent thing,” he said further.
“We expect not a resolution this week, but there are some positive signs that we could continue talking in the future until we are able to bridge the gap or resolve what they need and resolve what we need from them, like improvement of the conditions of our workers.”
There were over 24,000 cases of violation and abuse of Filipino workers in Kuwait in 2022 alone, according to the data of the Department of Migrant Workers, a big jump from 6,500 cases in 2016.
Ranara’s murder, with her charred remains discovered on a desert in Kuwait in late January this year, was not the first such incident involving Filipinos in Kuwait. In 2018, The Philippines imposed a worker deployment ban to Kuwait after the killing of a domestic helper Joanna Daniela Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer at an abandoned apartment. The ban was partially lifted the same year after both the countries signed an agreement for protection of the workers.
The Philippines again imposed the deployment ban in January 2020, following the killing of Constancia Lago Dayag and Jeanelyn Villavende, who was tortured to death by her employer. That ban was lifted after Kuwait charged Villavende’s employer with murder and sentenced her to death. The latest Philippine ban was imposed “because somebody was killed,” De Vega said.
