OEC-holding OFWs not covered by deployment suspension to Kuwait

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Saturday clarified that overseas Filipino workers  already holding a plane ticket and an Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) can still proceed to Kuwait despite the deployment suspension announced on Friday.

In an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Bello said only those who do not yet have an OEC will be covered by the deployment suspension prompted by reported cases of maltreatment of OFWs by their Kuwaiti employers.

“Apektado ‘yung mga 'di pa nabibigyan ng OEC…” he said. “‘Yung mga na-isyuhan na, may ticket na, may OEC na, hindi sila covered.”

The deployment suspension temporarily halts the processing and issuance of new OECs pending an investigation into the deaths of seven OFWs in the Middle Eastern country.

Bello said he doubted the claim that some of the deaths were because of suicide, adding that he has given investigators a maximum of 15 days to produce results.

President Rodrigo Duterte is mulling a “total ban” of OFW deployment to Kuwait after receiving reports of abuses against OFWs, many of them household helpers.

"We have lost about four Filipino women in the last few months. It’s always in Kuwait," Duterte said at the launching of the Overseas Filipino Bank, but did not elaborate on the matter.

For his part, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said two department officials will meet with the Kuwait Ambassador to the Philippines on Monday to discuss the issue.

Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency shows Kuwait was the fifth top destination for newly-hired and rehired OFWs in 2016. —LBG, GMA News