Bello says he rejected Kuwaiti envoy’s request to lift OFW ban

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Saturday said he has declined the request of Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines Musaed Saleh Althwaikh to lift the deployment suspension of Filipino workers 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.

Among these Filipino workers was Vanessa Esguerra, who came home in a coffin after alerting her family that she was being sexually harassed by her employer's father.

In a 24 Oras report by JP Soriano on Saturday, Bello said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) must first get to the bottom of these cases.

"I said I also want to do that but I have to get the results of the investigation, which I ordered to be completed in 15 days," Bello said, recalling his conversation with the Kuwaiti ambassador during a meeting.

"There is no accusation of maltreatment. What happened is that our OFWs suffered violent deaths. And we have to determine what caused these violent deaths," he added.

The Labor secretary said he will form and deploy a rapid reaction team to further assess the situation of Filipinos working in the Middle East.

In an interview on the report, a domestic worker in Riad, Saudi Arabia said her employer sold her to another employer and she has not received her salary for three months.

"Binenta po ako ng dati kong amo na walang nakalagay sa kontrata ko. Tatlong buwan na po akong hindi sinasahuran," she said.

"Natatakot na ako para sa buhay ko kung magtagal pa ako dito. Kasi kaunting mali ko lang, sinasampal na ako. Hinahampas kamay. Sinisipa pa sa likod," she added. —Margaret Claire Layug/ALG, GMA News