Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Undersecretary Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones said Wednesday, February 8, that DMW Secretary Susan Ople is considering banning the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) to Kuwait pending talks on how to protect OFWs in that Middle East country.
While the targeted employment ban to Kuwait is based on its data, DMW said that there are OFWs who have gone to Kuwait six or seven times because their employers have known them and know their culture.
Allones gave this explanation as a result of the admission of Senator Rafael ‘’Raffy’’ T. Tulfo, chairman of the Senate migrant workers committee that he feels bad that Ople is against his pronouncements that he wants a ban of OFWs being deployed to Kuwait
He said he suspects Ople is favoring travel agencies and recruitment agencies instead of pushing for an OFW deployment ban to Kuwait.
Ople was not present in today’s hearing by the Tulfo committee because she is part of the presidential delegation to Japan.
Allones explained that Ople is not against Tulfo’s position which is against the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait but that Ople had led a fact-finding team to investigate what happened to Jullebee Ranara, an OFW whose burned body was found in a Kuwaiti desert.
Tulfo shot back by asking what more evidence could the fact-finding team uncover when the burnt body of Ranara has been recovered and that there are many reports of OFWs being abused in Kuwait.
The DMW reported that the Kuwaiti government had written the Ranara family, stating that it was sorry.
But Tulfo said the Kuwaiti government should not only tell the Ranara family that it was sorry but to the Filipino nation and give assurances that it is doing something to protect OFWs in its territory.