KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait—Kuwait and the Philippines signed a deal on Friday to regulate domestic workers, after a dispute between the two countries led to a ban on Filipino workers in the Gulf state.
“A short time ago we signed an agreement between the two countries on the employment of domestic workers,” Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah told a joint press conference with his Filipino counterpart Alan Peter Cayetano.
The memorandum of understanding would protect thousands of overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait amid falling ties with the Gulf State due to abuses committed against them, Malacañang said Friday.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the under the MOU, Filipino workers would get seven hours of sleep, will be well-fed, get to enjoy holidays, and won’t have their passports confiscated by their employers.
The countries also agreed that Kuwait would create a special unit within its police that the Philippine embassy can liaison with regarding complaints of Filipino workers, and a special number that Filipino workers can call for assistance, which are both available 24 hours.
Roque said that under the agreement, Filipino workers will be allowed to have a cellphone so they could call the hotline.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said they met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and were told that the Kuwaiti government will be shouldering the expenses for the repatriation of more than 500 undocumented Filipinos.
With the signing of the MOU, Bello said the ban on the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait may be lifted soon by the President.
It was the Philippines that set the MOU with Kuwait as a condition to end the deployment ban.
Roque said several undocumented OFWs (those without facing charges) will be able to go home soon, while 150 OFWs will be going home together with the Philippine delegation.
Roque and Bello were accompanied by former Labor Sec. Marianito Roque, Labor Attaché Rustico Dela Fuente, and Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuwait Mohd Noordin Lomondot during their meeting with the Kuwaiti officials.