Manama: Philippines' Ambassador to Kuwait has denied a report that Manila is officially banning Filipino domestic workers from deployment in the country.
"The last update I received from the team that visited Kuwait last week was that the committee in the House of Representatives will review the Migrant Workers Act," Shulan Primavera told Kuwait Times. "So far, we have not received any official statement or information from Manila, and all of my sources are denying that an official announcement has been issued," he said.
Several sources have reported that Manila had officially announced that it was suspending the process of sending domestic workers to Kuwait indefinitely until new legislation is introduced to protect them.
The head of the Domestic Workers' Union in the Philippines had previously said that what she had seen during her recent visit to Kuwait helped explain why Manila has been contemplating the introduction of such a decision for some time.
She said that there was a need for Kuwait to follow the regulations issued by the Philippine labour authorities in compliance with Republic Act 10022, more commonly known as the Migrant Workers Act.
If a ban were to be imposed on Filipino domestic workers going to Kuwait, any workers currently employed in Kuwait but who are on vacation at home could face difficulties in returning to Kuwait, an official at a Philippines-based recruitment agency who visited Kuwait recently said.
During her visit to the country, two weeks ago, Miriam Mondragon, the Vice-President of the Philippine Association of Licensed Agencies for Kuwait (PHILAK), warned that if a nation fails to comply with any of the three stipulations listed in the Migrant Workers Act, "there will be no excuses".
The Philippines has recently announced the possibility to introduce legislation banning domestic workers from going to Gulf nations, including Kuwait and the UAE, to work, citing the Migrant Workers Act as justification.
