PHL tells Kuwait: ‘We expect better treatment for our kababayans’

The Philippine government has told Kuwait that it expects better treatment of Filipino workers as the Gulf state appealed to Manila to reconsider its deployment ban, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

A government inter-agency group is conducting a review of the country’s labor policy in Kuwait to determine if the ban will be enforced permanently, Cayetano said.

Kuwait officials expressed “shock” over the ban and asked Manila to review its policy, said Cayetano, but the Philippine government said such measure must be imposed due to constant reports of abuses suffered by Filipino workers from its Kuwaiti employers.

“The point is, we are sending a message around the world that we are happy that Filipinos are working for the world, working for you, contributing to your economy, raising your children, taking care of your sick, building  your infrastructure. But in the same way that we treat your citizens here, we expect great treatment or humane treatment for our people,” Cayetano said in an interview late Tuesday.

Kuwait is a major labor destination for Filipinos in the Middle East, with over 250,000 currently working there, mostly as domestic helpers.

The Philippines is among the world’s biggest exporters of labor, including household workers. Their remittances keep the Philippine economy afloat as they send over $2 billion annually.

Since the ban, meetings and consultations have taken place between the two sides in Manila and in Kuwait, Cayetano said.

“We can agree with a couple of things that the Kuwaiti ambassador said, but in general the statistics don’t lie and there is grave concern about the abuses in Kuwait,” he said.

Although many Filipinos in Kuwait have gainful and good employment, Cayetano said “the numbers of those who are stranded, of cases of abuse, and who were promised more of what they are getting there is also large.”

Noted Kuwaiti poet and essayist Nejoud Al-Yagout, in a column in Kuwait Times on January 22, backed the Philippine decision to impose the ban, saying such move is a “humanitarian issue” that “should be viewed objectively.”

“This has nothing to do with the Philippines breaking ties with Kuwat,” Al-Yagout said. “I hope it is a wake-up call for us to look at how we are all contributing to this and to realize that this has nothing to do with Kuwait. It is a global issue.”  — RSJ, GMA News