Postscript to the Kuwait imbroglio
We should never sign any agreement for resumption of deployment to countries that have proven themselves unworthy of the dignity, human rights, and well-being of our workers. We should never give up the gains from the decisive act of the president in ordering a ban of all workers to Kuwait. We should never give in easily to a mere promise of reforms totally contradicted by evidence of human rights violations, we should demand proof of total overhaul of our migration system. We shall have squandered the goodwill and sense of pride we earned when we decided to pull out our people from oppressive employers, exploitative recruiters, and neglectful labor officials in Kuwait.
We should have learned by now from all the deaths, rapes, unjust executions, and unfair convictions of OFWs in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, that some countries do not deserve to host our people, especially in dirty, difficult, dangerous, degrading, and deceptive jobs. We should know which recruiters should be banned forever, which countries should be marked undeserving of Filipinos.
We should have learned by now who are the competent, conscientious, and committed officials that we should deploy to those ''problematic'' countries as ambassadors, Labor attachés, and welfare officers. We have been deploying workers to the Middle East since the time of Secretary Blas Ople in the early '70s. If we did not learn our lessons, there must be something wrong with us. Policy makers should allow themselves to be pressured by migrant workers who are willing to jump into the fires of hell in some high-risk countries. DOLE officials should decide not on the basis of what is popular but on what is right. Thus, they should not lift the ban on the basis of empty promises by minor Kuwait officials.
It should be arranged that President Rodrigo Duterte himself should meet with the Monarch of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as well as Prime Minister Jabeer Al Mubarak Al Hamad al Sabah, and Secretary Silvestre Bello III should meet with his counterpart, Minister of Social affairs and Labor Sabeeh Barak Al-Sabee. If any agreement has to be signed, it should involve the highest levels. Until and unless there is indubitable evidence that enough safety nets are in place, the ban should continue. I know that the economy of Kuwait shall suffer (I did not say collapse) because the best foreign workers in Kuwait are Filipinos. In hotels, restaurants, hospitals, offices, shops, and factories, the OFWs serve with the highest degree of competence and commitment. We have other markets to go to like China, Japan, Canada, the Americas, and Europe.
I know whereof I write. I lived in Kuwait as Labor attaché. I know the terrain. I know the people. I have no hidden agenda. Thus, I speak the truth.
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