PR
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced on Friday the lifting of the ban on the deployment of household service workers to Kuwait.
In POEA governing board resolution no. 7 approved on February 13, the government will now resume processing and deployment of all types of workers bound to the Gulf estate.
Bello, who chairs the POEA governing board, said the approval was made in view of the filing of charges against the suspected killers of OFW Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende.
“After due consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and with the filing of appropriate charges against the perpetrators [in the killing] of OFW Jeanelyn Villavende, the Governng Board of the POEA unanimously approved the lifting of the remaining ban in Kuwait with respect to the deployment of household workers,” Bello said.
Last month, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) imposed a total deployment ban of OFWs to Kuwait following the findings by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that Villavende was sexually abused and brutally murdered.
However, in view of the approval early this month by the Kuwait and Philippine governments of a harmonized employment contract for Filipino domestic workers in oil-rich country, the POEA governing board lifted the ban on the processing and deployment of OFWs to Kuwait, except newly-hired and returning domestic workers.
More than 50 percent of close to 250,000 documented workers in Kuwait are household workers.
