MANILA - The Philippine government has prohibited all deployment of Filipino migrant workers to Kuwait following the violent death of a household worker there, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said Wednesday.
The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration signed the resolution on a total deployment ban after an autopsy conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation showed Jeanelyn Villavende was sexually abused and tortured, Bello said.
The country last imposed a total deployment ban to the Gulf state in 2018 after Filipina migrant worker Joanna Demafelis was slain and discovered inside a freezer at an abandoned apartment there.
Her employer was found guilty for her slay.
President Rodrigo Duterte responded angrily, listing some of his demands to the Kuwaiti government on the treatment of Filipino domestic helpers.
The two countries settled their differences by signing a deal to provide better protection for Filipino migrant workers in Kuwait. Calls to revisit this pact came in the wake of Villavende's death.
More details to follow.
--With a report from Zen Hernandez, ABS-CBN News
Kuwait, OFWs, total deployment ban, DOLE, Department of Labor and Employment, Silvestre Bello