Philippines’ Duterte lifts ban for Kuwait-bound workers

The news comes days after Kuwait and the Philippines reached a deal to regulate and protect Filipino workers who seek jobs in the wealthy Gulf state

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has instructed the country’s labour secretary to lift the ban on deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait, a presidential spokesman said. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:00am, 17 May 2018Updated: 8:15pm, 17 May 2018

The Philippines has lifted its ban on migrant workers heading to jobs in Kuwait, ending a diplomatic row that was sparked when a murdered Filipina maid was found in her employer’s freezer.

“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte tonight instructed Secretary Silvestre Bello to totally lift the ban on deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement on Wednesday.

The news comes days after Kuwait and the Philippines signed a deal to regulate and protect the hundreds of thousands of Filipino workers who seek higher-paid jobs in the wealthy Gulf state.

The spat, simmering for months, reached its lowest point last month when Kuwaiti authorities expelled Manila’s envoy over videos showing embassy staff helping Filipino workers flee allegedly abusive bosses in Kuwait.

The Philippines' foreign affairs secretary, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Kuwaiti foreign minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah shake hands after signing an agreement to regulate domestic workers on May 11. Photo: AFP

Around 262,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, nearly 60 per cent of them domestic workers, according to the Philippine foreign ministry.

They are among the millions of Philippine citizens that seek work abroad, attracted by salaries they cannot get in their relatively impoverished nation.