Duterte going to Kuwait for OFW deal

HONG KONG – President Duterte will travel to Kuwait to witness the signing of an agreement that will provide protection to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Duterte said the Kuwaiti government has agreed to grant his demands meant to improve the working conditions of Filipino migrant workers. 

“I have made many demands and in fairness to the Kuwaiti government, they agreed,” the President said during his meeting with members of the Filipino community yesterday here. 

“I will go there for the signing,” he added. 

Duterte did not say when he would visit Kuwait, but Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said the signing should be done within the month or before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. 

His demands include prohibiting the confiscation of workers’ passports, allowing them to sleep for at least seven hours, allowing them to cook their own food, giving them a day off  and ensuring that they would not experience physical abuse. 

Last February, Duterte imposed a ban on the deployment of Filipino migrant workers to Kuwait because of the reported maltreatment of some Filipino workers in the Gulf state. 

The ban was announced after the discovery of the body of 29-year-old Filipina worker Joanna Demafelis inside a freezer in the Al Shaab district.

A Kuwaiti court has handed Demafelis’ employers a death sentence but officials said the deployment ban would only be lifted once an agreement on the protection of OFWs is signed.