Ban starts on OFWs in Kuwait

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has started implementing the ban on Kuwait-bound newly hired household service workers (HSWs) after receiving a copy of the Jan. 3 resolution from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration ordering the partial ban following the recent suspicious death of a Filipino domestic worker in the Gulf state.

BI acting port operations division chief Grifton Medina clarified, however, that Kuwaiti-bound HSWs whose employment certificates were issued before the cut-off date of Jan. 3, 2020 would still be allowed to leave.

But the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Tuesday urged a total ban on HSW deployment in Kuwait, citing government data that showed that in the last four years, some 200 domestic workers have died in Kuwait, some of whose cause of death remains unknown or was listed as suicide.

Meanwhile, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the agency was ready to implement any change in policy, should the Department of Foreign Affairs or the Department of Labor and Employment impose any new deployment ban on Iraq, Iran, and Libya, after tensions rose in the Middle East following the United States’ assassination of an Iranian general last week.