DOLE suspends OFW deployment to Kuwait

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III  (Photo from a video by the President Communications Operations Office)

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has decided to suspend the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kuwait.

“Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has suspended the deployment of workers to Kuwait in the light of the death of seven OFWs,” the DOLE said in a statement, issued on Friday evening.

Bello also directed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to stop the processing of overseas employment certificates of OFWs bound for Kuwait.

President Duterte on Thursday said he was considering ordering the ban on deployment following reports that many OFWs suffered abuses from their employers in the oil-rich kingdom. —JULIE M. AURELIO