Palace: Deployment ban to stay until Kuwait enforces MOA on OFWs protection

MANILA, Philippines — The total deployment ban to Kuwait will remain until the provisions of the labor agreement that ensures the protection of Filipino workers there are strictly enforced by the host country, Malacañang said Thursday.

“Until such time (that) the terms of the MOA [memorandum of agreement] are incorporated in each labor contract between the employer and the employee, the ban remains,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

“Pag hindi niyo ginawa ‘yung pinag-usapan natin diyan, tuluy-tuloy ang ban namin (If you will not impose what we’ve agreed upon, our ban will continue),” he stressed.

The Palace official was referring to the 2018 MOA entered into by the Philippines and the Kuwaiti governments after the deaths of several Filipinos in the Gulf state, including Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer a year after she was reported missing.

However, a string of reported abuses and deaths of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continued in the Gulf State despite the signing of the agreement.

The Philippines imposed Wednesday a total deployment ban of Filipino workers to Kuwait, following the death of Jeanelyn Villavende, who was tortured and sexually abused by her employers.

The deployment ban would cover all “newly-hired domestic workers or household service workers, semi-skilled workers, skilled workers and professionals, including crew changes and shore leaves of Filipino seafarers” in Kuwait.