OFW group backs ban on deployment of maids to Kuwait

MANILA – The ACTS-OFW Coalition of Organizations has backed the Philippine government’s decision to ban the deployment of Filipino household service workers (HSWs) to Kuwait following the beating to death of Jeanelyn Villavende by her employers.

“The prohibition should stay until the Kuwaiti government comes up with stronger measures to prevent a repeat of similar horrible attacks on our workers there,” said ACTS-OFW chairman Aniceto Bertiz III.

“We want swift justice for Villavende and harsh punishment for her cruel Kuwaiti employers,” Bertiz, a former member of Congress, said.

“Severe punishment is the best deterrence to future atrocities against Filipino workers in the emirate,” Bertiz said.

Villavende, 26, of Norala, South Cotabato, had been beaten repeatedly and was already lifeless when she was brought to the hospital in December, according to a report from the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait.

Her date of death remains unknown as autopsy results were pending, but her employers have been apprehended as the main suspects in the case.

The Department of Labor and Employment last week barred the deployment of HSWs to Kuwait. The injunction covers both newly hired as well as those with expired contracts.

The estimated 240,000 Filipino workers in Kuwait, including a large number of HSWs, sent home a total of $626 million in cash from January to October 2019, up 14.8 percent from the $545 million they remitted in the same 10-month period in 2018.