Tulfo: Kuwait deployment ban stays until damages on Ranara case are paid

Raffy Tulfo —SENATE PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Raffy Tulfo said the deployment ban on Filipino workers to Kuwait should remain in place until moral or compensatory damages for the murder of migrant worker Jullebee Ranara has been paid.

Tulfo’s remark came after the State of Kuwait’s Appeal Court affirmed the guilty verdict and conviction of Ranara’s killer — a 17-year-old earlier identified as Turki Ayed Al-Azmi.

“It is a great consolation that the Kuwait Appellate Court agreed with the guilty verdict and sentence of 16 years imprisonment to the minor who murdered Jullebee Ranara, our fellow OFW in Kuwait,” said Tulfo in a statement.

“But the fight to achieve justice for Jullebee does not end here. The family of the accused Turki Ayed Al-Azmi should be obliged to pay damages, including actual and moral damages. And the deployment ban in Kuwait should remain in place until this damage is paid,” he emphasized.

He likewise reminded the national government that having shelters for Overseas Filipino Workers  in Kuwait and having constant monitoring of employers is non-negotiable.

“Such incidents are also a reminder to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW)  to intensify monitoring and background checking on all employers, especially in Kuwait, when the ban is lifted,” he said.

Tulfo then urged the DMW to ensure that “foreign recruitment agencies have liability, and not just the Philippine recruitment agency,” should such incident once again transpire in another country.

Ranara, a household service worker in Kuwait, was murdered by the son of her employer. Her body was burned and found buried in the desert on January 21, 2023.

Autopsy reports likewise showed that she was pregnant at the time of her killing.