5 Filipina workers in Kuwait call for help over reported abuse by employment agency
MANILA, Philippines — The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration has promised to assist five Filipino domestic workers who have been asking for help after their employment agency locked them together in a room.
In a video aired by ABS-CBN’s “TeleRadyo” on Monday morning, the women showed what looks to be a small room, showing the only area where they can access the internet. John Michael Vitan, partner of domestic worker Jhoan Singh, in an interview, said the five domestic workers were trapped by their yet to be identified employment agency and that one of them is two months pregnant.
"Tinanggal nila yung contact sa pamilya namin. Pinagkukuha nila pati cellphone pinag-aano, pati cellphone binasag… ‘yung dalawa binugbog po, pinagmumura, tinatakot po kami dito. Kailangan po namin ng tulong," one of the Filipino domestic workers said in the video.
(They removed all access to contact our families. They took away our cellphone, they even destroyed one of the phones… two of us suffered physical and verbal abuse, they are trying to scare here us here. We need help.)
"Gusto na po nilang umuwi kasi pinahihirapan daw sila ng agency. Pinakakain po sila ng sirang pagkain," Vitan said.
(They all want to go home because the agency is making things difficult for them. The agency is feeding them spoiled food.)
OWWA to reach out soon
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Hans Leo Cacdac in the same interview said that the agency will reach out to the domestic workers as soon as they get a list of their names. Cacdac plans to call the attention of both the Philippine recruitment agency and the Kuwaitee recruitment agency regarding the situation.
OWWA is planning to bring the domestic workers to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office shelter in Kuwait, while the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration will be tapped to investigate the situation.
“Ang Kuwaitee government ay magkakaroon din tayo ng pakikipag-ugnayan sa kanila kasi may kasunduan ang Pilipinas at Kuwait na aalagaan nila ang ating mga workers at hindi dapat umabot sa ganyan,” Cacdac said.
(We are also going to contact the Kuwaitee government because the Philippines and Kuwait have a labor agreement that they are supposed to look after our workers and it should not have resulted in this situation.)
In 2018, the Philippine government banned for four months the deployment of domestic workers to Kuwait after reports of abuse and maltreatment. Domestic helper Joanna Demafelis was found dead inside a freezer in Kuwait. Her brutal death at the hands of her employers led to soured relations between the two countries.
But the deployment ban was lifted after the Philippines and Kuwait inked a memorandum of understanding that is supposed to protect Filipino domestic workers deployed there.
Calls to review the agreement surfaced after another overseas Filipino worker, Constancia Lago Dayag, died there in 2019 and was found to have contusions and hematoma. Another deployment ban was issued in 2020, but was lifted not even a month later, following the death of another OFW, Jeanelyn Villavende. — Kaycee Valmonte
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