Finally after a seven month lull in the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait the DMW and the private recruitment agencies are starting to start talks with their Kuwait counterparts towards the lifting of the deployment ban by the first quarter of 2024.
The Department of Migrant Workers will fly to Kuwait by the first week of December upon the invitation of Foreign Ministry of Kuwait for high level discussions for the lifting of the deployment ban imposed by Kuwait last May 10, 2023.
The DMW team will negotiate on a revised the bilateral labor agreement for Household Service Workers and resolve current problems on the Welfare Centers for HSWs.
In the meantime the local private recruitment agencies deploying to Kuwait PHILAAK (Philippine Agencies Accredited to Kuwait) met with Foreign Recruitment Agencies (FRAs) operating in Kuwait to start the process in coming up with a white list similar to the process in Saudi Arabia for the deployment of HSWs that will screen compliant PRAs and FRAs from Kuwait.
Current problems encountered by PRAs are non-payment of salaries, domestic and verbal abuse, extreme working hours, no day-off and refusal to arbitration with the POLO on complaints of run-way domestic workers.s.
According from a Filipina owner of an FRA in Kuwait arou150agencies uto of the 300 FRAs in Kuwait have closed shop due to the seven mh ban on the entry Filipino migrant workers except tbose OFWs holding resident visas.
It will be recalled that this impasse between Kuwait started in February this year on the violent death of Jubilee Ranara at the hands of the son of her employertThe late DMW Secretary Ma. Susana i“TOOTs” Ople imposed a ban on new HSWs
However Kuwait imposed a wider ban which covered all Filipino migrant workers to cover skilled or unskilled except those OWS holding resident visas.,
The lifting of the deployment ban was jump started when President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr and the Crown Prince of Kuwait met at the sidelines of the ASEAN-GCC Meeting in Saudi Arabia where the Crown Prince apologized over the ban and both President Marcos and the Crown Prince agreed that the ban should be lifted for the continuing good relations of both countries.
There are over 280,000 OFWs in Kuwait majority are HSWs at 260,000 while the rest are skilled workers.
In 2022 the POEA\DMWE recorded 60,000 OFWs were deployed to Kuwait including re-hires.or Balik Mangagawa vacationing GSWs.
A potential 30,000 HSWs can be deployed once the deployment ban is lifted.
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