By Roy Mabasa
The Philippine government on Tuesday strongly condemned the killing of another Filipino domestic worker in Kuwait purportedly by the employer’s wife.
Department of Foreign Affairs (MANILA BULLETIN)
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the continuing incidents of violence and abuse of Filipino household workers in Kuwait "violates the spirit of the agreement signed in May 2018 that seeks to promote and protect their welfare."
This developed as the DFA summoned the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines to express Manila's outrage over what it called "seeming lack of protection of our domestic workers" at the hands of their employers.
Furthermore, the Philippines pressed the Kuwaiti goverment for complete transparency in the investigation of the case and to call for the "swift prosecution of the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law."
It said the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait was closely coordinating with Kuwaiti authorities to ensure that justice will be served.
In May last year, the Philippines and Kuwait signed an agreement to provide better protection for Filipino OFWs in the Gulf state following a diplomatic row sparked by a rescue mission conducted by Philippine officials dispatched by the DFA.
Called the "Agreement on the Employment of Domestic Workers between the Philippines and Kuwait," it provides, among others additional protection for OFWs deployed in that oil-rich Gulf state country.
Prior to that on February 2018, the body of the Filipina household worker Joanna Demafelis was found in a freezer at an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.