DOLE stops sending maids to Kuwait

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Friday formally banned the deployment of newly hired domestic workers in Kuwait, as government officials await the result of the investigation into the death of yet another Filipino household worker in the Gulf state.

The deployment ban and moratorium on the accreditation and processing of individual contracts and additional job orders for domestic workers in Kuwait took effect immediately.

In the board resolution by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Bello said the order did not cover skilled workers and returning employees with existing contracts. Also excluded are workers who were able to obtain an overseas employment certificate, or exit clearance, on or before 5 p.m. on Friday.

The deployment ban comes just days after the death of household worker Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende, 26, who was allegedly beaten to death by her employers.Bello said the reimposition of the deployment ban was meant “to deliver the message that we mean business in protecting our overseas Filipino workers.”

“It might ripen into a total deployment ban if we do not get justice for Villavende,” Bello warned.

On Thursday, Bello met with Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh, who assured him that Villavende’s employers were already in police custody and an investigation was underway.

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration chief Hans Leo Cacdac quoted the Kuwaiti ambassador as saying that Villavende’s male employer had told police that it was his wife who killed the maid.