DOLE officially imposes ban on OFW deployment to Kuwait

February 12, 2018

Two days after an order from President Rodrigo Duterte, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Monday officially imposed a total ban on deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kuwait.

In a press conference, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III formally signed the Administrative Order (AO) banning all OFWs from going to Kuwait "effective immediately".

"In pursuit of national interest, and with the advent of the series of reports involving abuse and deaths of OFWs in Kuwait, a total ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait, pursuant to the directive of the President of the Philippines, is hereby enforced," said Bello quoting the one-page AO 54-2018.

He said the immediacy of the situation in Kuwait prompted the department to break from the usual process in imposing a deployment ban.

"Ordinarily, an order to ban deployment should be approved by the POEA Governing Board. However, in view of this directive of our president, that action can be dispensed with, subject to a ratification later," explained Bello.

Under the ban, all types of OFWs, new hires and returnees, shall not be allowed to go to Kuwait.

However, DOLE Undersecretary Dominador Say said the coverage of OFWs that are only on vacation in the country and still have existing job contracts, are still under study.

"We would want our balik-manggagawa  to come home and then go back where they are working if their working conditions are good," explained Bello.

Bello said a task force will fly to Middle East on February 20 to check on conditions of Filipinos in Kuwait and to find out what kind of help they need.

He said another task force will handle holding of job fairs in the Middle East to facilitate re-employment of those affected by t6he deployment ban and those displaced by a political crisis in Qatar.

Bello added they have formed another team of labor officials, who will handle the repatriation of the workers from Kuwait.

As of Monday, a total of 400 out of the 2,500 distressed Kuwait OFWs have been repatriated.

Bello said another 400 will be arriving Tuesday and tomorrow Wednesday.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said there are emerging markets that can offer new jobs to repatriated OFWs if they choose to.

Job orders, according to POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia, may soon come from Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and Czeckoslovakia.

"We have several job orders in different parts of the country. It is not just in Kuwait  where we deploy workers," said Olalia.

Duterte's order came after the discovery of  Filipina worker Joanna Demafelis' body inside a freezer of an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.

Bello said he has ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to investigate claims of family their case was not acted upon by the latter.

He said he learned they have brought before OWWA the case of Joanna as early as February 2017.

"They (family) were complaining that our welfare office, and presumably the labor attache, did not take action. Because of that, I have asked OWWA and the POEA to conduct an investigation and identify who are these people," said Bello.

He said that if this is proven true, he will order the recall of the concerned personnel in Kuwait.

"We will... replace them with people more compassionate to OFWs," said Bello. DMS