DOLE says deal protecting OFWs in Kuwait finalized

HAINAN — A bilateral agreement that would protect Filipino workers in Kuwait has been finalized and is just awaiting President Rodrigo Duterte's approval, the Labor department said. 

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said Duterte might travel to Kuwait before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to witness the signing of the agreement. 

"We have finalized the MOU (memorandum of understanding). We just need the go-signal of boss on when it will be signed," Bello said in a chance interview with reporters last Tuesday here. 

Bello said the signing should be done within the month because Kuwaiti officials might no longer be available during Ramadan. 

"I don't know. It should be before Ramadan, within April," the labor chief said when asked when the agreement would be signed. 

Last February, Duterte ordered a ban on the sending of overseas Filipino workers to Kuwait, citing the abuses suffered by some domestic helpers. 

The ban was announced following the discovery of the body of Filipina worker Joanna Demafelis inside a freezer in the Al Shaab district.

The 29-year old domestic helper from Iloilo had broken ribs and contusion and trauma in the pelvis and kidney area and died of internal bleeding. 

Earlier this month, a Kuwaiti court sentenced Demafelis' employers to death by hanging but officials insisted that the ban would only be lifted once an agreement providing Filipino workers is signed. 

Duterte has demanded that certain conditions be included in the agreement namely prohibiting the confiscation of workers' passports, allowing them to sleep for seven hours, granting them a day off and permitting them to cook their own food.

He has also ordered the Labor department to ensure that Filipino workers in Kuwait would not suffer physical abuse at the hands of their employers.