MANILA, Philippines – Kuwait has expressed its “regret and bewilderment” over the Philippines’ decision to suspend the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the Gulf state, a report on Sunday, January 21, said. 

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Friday, January 19, issued Administrative Order No. 25, ordering the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to stop processing and issuing overseas employment certificates (OECs) to all Kuwait-bound workers. (READ: ‘Experts divided on OFW deployment ban to Kuwait‘ )

It came after President Rodrigo Duterte himself said he was a mulling a “total ban” on deployment to Kuwait after being informed of cases of sexual abuse of Filipino domestic workers.

According to a report by the Kuwait Times, Kuwait’s foreign ministry has summoned the Philippine ambassador to clarify the President’s statement.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khalen Sulaiman Al-Jarallah announced that the Philippine ambassador has been told about “Kuwait’s regret and bewilderment towards his president’s decision to suspend the dispatch of workers to Kuwait,” a stand which “contradicts the nature of the distinctive ties between the two countries and does not serve their common interests.”

Kuwait said that freedoms and rights enjoyed by the expatriate communities in the country have contributed to raising the number of OFWs there to 276,000. Kuwait added the status of workers in the country “cannot be assessed according to individual cases that are common in other nations.”

The envoy was reportedly asked to seek the lifting of the ban and was told that the Kuwait government is ready to host Filipino diplomats to discuss the conditions of the community and their problems. 

The country’s top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalen also said Kuwait has a “clean human rights record, due to which expatriates enjoy full rights,” the Kuwait Times added. – Rappler.com