Immigration: Returning OFWs not covered by deployment ban to Kuwait
February 14, 2018 | 11:20am
Overseas Filipino workers look on after arriving in Manila from Kuwait at Manila International Airport on Feb. 13, 2018. Kuwait's foreign minister on February 13 condemned what he called an "escalation" by Manila after the Philippines expanded a ban on its nationals working in Kuwait. Manila on February 12 announced "total ban" on new employment in Kuwait, including Filipinos who had already obtained employment permits but had not yet left for the Gulf country.
Noel Celis / AFP
MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration on Wednesday announced that overseas Filipino workers who are returning to their jobs can leave the Philippines for Kuwait.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said that the Department of Labor and Employment has issued a new directive exempting returning workers from the government's deployment ban to Kuwait.
On Monday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III signed an administrative order totally banning OFW deployment to Kuwait, following President Rodrigo Duterte's directive.
This comes after the discovery of a Filipina worker's body stuffed inside a freezer in her employer's home and amid continuing probe into deaths and abuses that OFWs suffer in the hands of their employers in the Gulf country.
OFWs with short-term, non-working visas are also not covered by the ban, the Immigration clarified.
More than 100 workers' flights deferred
Bello earlier said that the government is still studying whether the ban covers employees with standing "good contracts" in Kuwait.
Following this, the BI said that their personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport were "compelled to defer the departure of more than a hundred OFWs to Kuwait as they awaited the DOLE's decision on their fate."
BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang, however, clarified that the bureau is not shouldering the rebooking flights of returning OFWs whose flights were deferred while waiting for the DOLE's directive.
Philstar.com has reached out to DOLE for comment on whether assistance would be given to workers whose flights were affected, but the department has yet to reply.
Meanwhile, BI Port Operations Division Chief Marc Red Mariñas said they would ensure that returning OFWs to Kuwait are subjected to stricter opening procedures and rigid inspection of all departing passengers.
"It is imperative that our immigration officers exercise extra vigilance in order to thwart attempts by the illegal recruiters and human trafficking syndicates to circumvent the ban by employing all sorts of dirty schemes," Mariñas added.
Related video:
BrandSpace Articles
<
>
Philstar
x
- Latest
- Trending
Trending
Latest
Trending
By Ian Laqui | 14 hours ago
By Allison Jackson | 19 hours ago
By Alexis Romero | 1 day ago
By Alexis Romero | 1 day ago
Latest
By Louella Desiderio | 6 hours ago
By Louise Maureen Simeon | 6 hours ago
By Bella Cariaso | 6 hours ago
By Emmanuel Tupas | 6 hours ago
Recommended
6 hours ago
6 hours ago
2 days ago
2 days ago
