The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Monday strongly condemned the killing of a Filipina domestic worker in Kuwait allegedly by the employer’s wife.
The DFA said the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait is coordinating closely with Kuwaiti authorities to ensure that justice will be served to the unidentified victim.
“The continuing incidents of violence and abuse of Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait violates the spirit of the agreement signed in May 2018 that seeks to promote and protect their welfare,” the DFA said in a statement.
The DFA has summoned the Kuwaiti Ambassador in Manila, Musaed Saleh Ahmad Althwaikh, “to express the Philippine government’s outrage over the seeming lack of protection of our domestic workers at the hands of their employers.”
The DFA also pressed for “complete transparency in the investigation of the case and to call for the swift prosecution of the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.
In February 2018, the body of Joanna Demafelis was found stuffed inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait. A Syrian court found her employer guilty of murder.
“The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait is coordinating closely with Kuwaiti authorities to ensure that justice will be served,” the DFA said.
Rising incidents of abuses against Filipino domestic helpers, where some resulted to death, prompted the Philippine government in 2018 to enforce a deployment ban, sparking a diplomatic row between the two states.
The ban was lifted after a labor pact, which commits Kuwait to provide protection to Filipino workers, was signed in May last year, signaling normalization of the two countries’ relations.
Kuwait is a major labor destination for Filipinos in the Middle East, with over 250,000 currently working there, mostly as domestic helpers
