Kuwait complies with Philippines demands regarding worker rights

Protest in the Philipines seeking justice for the murder of Joanna Demafelis. Filipino maid Joanna Demafelis, was killed by her Kuwaiti employers, who then hid her body in a freezer.

Kuwait has met demands made by the Philipines to allow for a return of their nationals to the Gulf state, the country’s foreign minister said yesterday.

The Philippines had requested that a 24-hour hotline be opened between the Kuwaiti authorities and the Philippines embassy to allow workers who are being abused by their employers to be able to contact officials and seek justice.

In a press release, Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Khalid Al-Jarallah said that his country “is ready to cooperate with the Philippines embassy to fix the outstanding issues and return the 800 Filipinos who are being held in halfway houses in Kuwait to their homes.”

A diplomatic row has ensued between the two countries after a video went viral on social media showing embassy staff rescuing Filipino domestic workers from allegedly abusive Kuwaiti employers.

Read: Couple sentenced to death for murder of Filipina worker in Kuwait – media

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.