DOLE suspends OFW deployment to Kuwait

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has suspended the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait amid cases of maltreatment.

According to Administrative Order No. 25 issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, the suspension will be in effect pending the investigation on the deaths of  seven OFWs in Kuwait.

Bello directed the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to "suspend the processing of Overseas Employment Certificates (OEC) for deployment to Kuwait."

The order was issued a day after President Rodrigo Duterte said he is considering stopping the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait following reports of abuses particularly on Filipino household service workers.

Also on Friday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said he has directed two DFA officials to meet with the Kuwaiti ambassador in the Philippines to discuss the reported abuses.

The meeting, he said, will take place on Monday.

"On Monday, our usec (undersecretary) and asec (assistant secretary) will be talking to the ambassador and show him the statement of the president,"  Cayetano said.

"I'm expecting a good response from the ambassador, but of course we have to see the response translate into action. We need protection of our OFWs," he added.

Online jobs portal WorkAbroad.Ph states that Kuwait was the fourth top destination country for OFWs, while the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) ranked Kuwait as the fifth top country of deployment for new hires and re-hires. —KBK, GMA News