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Pinoy Abroad

POEA approves total deployment ban to Kuwait


The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Wednesday approved a resolution imposing total deployment ban to Kuwait following the death of another Filipina migrant worker there last December.

According to Sam Nielsen's report on Super Radyo dzBB, the POEA Governing Board’s decision is based on the recommendation of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.

The Department of Labor and Employment said the ban covers all Filipino workers and may possibly affect tourists who plan to fly to Kuwait.

The total deployment ban comes after an autopsy of slain Filipina worker Jeanelyn Villavende’s body found that she was also sexually abused during her five-month deployment to Kuwait. 

The initial autopsy of Villavende’s body by a Kuwaiti hospital did not indicate that she was sexually abused.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier said he is in favor of a total deployment ban to Kuwait.

At a forum in Manila earlier in the day, Guevarra recalled that the administration already entered into an agreement with the Kuwaiti government after the deaths of several Filipinos in the Gulf state, including Joanna Demafelis, who was found dead in a freezer in 2018.

Inked for the protection of Filipino workers in Kuwait, the agreement was said to provide that overseas Filipino workers should have a day off and at least seven hours of sleep daily, their passports free from confiscation by their employers.

Guevarra said Manila will see how Kuwait acts on Villavende's killing. Malacañang earlier said it was a "clear disregard" of the bilateral agreement. —Julia Mari Ornedo/KBK, GMA News

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