Pinay chef found dead inside OFW shelter in Bahrain

MANILA, Philippines - An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) was found dead Wednesday inside the shelter run by the Philippine embassy in Bahrain where she was temporarily staying, a migrant workers' rights group reported.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Monterona said the Philippine embassy concluded that Kathleen Ann Viray Ilagan, 31, who hailed from Davao, committed suicide.

Monterona said that he received an email from a former staff of the Center for Overseas Workers, a Davao-based non-government organization providing assistance to OFWs and families, asking assistance on behalf of the family of Ilagan to look into her death.

Records showed that Ilagan left the country on July 2012 to work as a pastry chef for a local company based in Bahrain.

She was deployed by the Manila-based agency HRD Employment Consultant and Multi Services Inc. as shown in her deployment documents.

Ilagan's family said that earlier this month, the OFW left her job and proceeded to the Philippine embassy and sought repatriation.

She was admitted at the Philippine embassy’s shelter while attending on her case and repatriation.

Monterona said Ilagan's family could not accept that she committed suicide as she "had no serious problems that will lead her to end even her own life."

"All that she wanted was to go home," Monterona said, quoting a relative of Ilagan.

"We are calling on the Department of Justice in coordination with Department of Foreign Affairs to probe the alleged suicide of Ilagan. This should not easily be declared as suicide without conducting thorough investigation," Monterona said.

He proposed that the DOJ should consider sending investigators from the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct an independent probe the incident.

Migrante has monitored a yearly average of eight to 10 cases of "mysterious deaths" involving OFWs from the Middle East since 2008 until 2012.