Total deployment ban on Kuwait imposed
Credit to Author: William B. Depasupil| Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:24:21 +0000
FOR the second time in two years, the Philippine government has again imposed a total ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait, this time over the death of Filipino household worker Jeanelyn Villavende.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd on Wednesday said the governing board of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has approved a resolution for a total deployment ban on the oil-rich Middle East country.
Bello sits as chairman of the POEA board.
The scope of the total deployment ban is yet to be explained and the POEA is yet to release a copy of the resolution.
In 2018, the POEA board, through Administrative Order (AO) 54, also imposed a total deployment ban on Kuwait upon the directives of President Rodrigo Duterte over the death of household worker Joanna Demafelis, whose remains were found stuffed inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Al Shaab Area, Hawally, Kuwait.
The deployment ban was later lifted upon the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait that gave added protection to Filipino workers in Kuwait.
Also on Wednesday, the first group of 13 Filipino repatriates from Iraq arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after heeding the government’s mandatory repatriation.
The 13, including two children, were on board a Qatar Airways flight from Doha.
The group was met by Esther Margaux “Mocha” Uson, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration deputy administrator, other OWWA officials and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials.
A DFA official, who requested anonymity, said many of those who availed of the repatriation offered by the Philippine government were mostly undocumented.
He added that they were still working out to expedite the travel documents of other Filipinos in Iraq after President Rodrigo Duterte’s order of mandatory repatriation prompted by the tensions between the United States and Iran.
The DFA officials brought the workers to the VIP lounge of the NAIA Terminal 3 to give them time to rest before going to their hometowns.
With a reports from BENJAMIN L. VERGARA