(Eagle News) — The Department of Labor and Employment has officially ordered a total ban on the deployment of Overseas Filipino Workers to Kuwait.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III signed on Monday the administrative order that puts in place the ban, which came after the discovery of the gruesome death of Joanna Demafelis.
Demafelis was found inside the freezer of an apartment left abandoned since 2016.
It also came amid investigations into the deaths of six other cases.
“In pursuit of national interest and with the advent of the series of reports involving abuse and death of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Kuwait, a total ban on deployment of all OFWs to Kuwait pursuant to the directive of the President of the Philippines is hereby enforced,” Bello said in the order.
He said the order would take effect “immediately.”
“To date, some 2,229 Filipinos have been issued travel documents, and 1,754 have already been granted immigration clearances,” Bello said in a joint statement with the Department of Foreign Affairs.
He said the government would also extend assistance to the OFWs who were affected by the ban.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in the joint statement that the government’s “efforts to protect our kababayans will not end with the imposition of deployment bans or the repatriation of our workers in countries where they are prone to maltreatment.”
“We will also go after illegal recruiters, human traffickers and other modern-day slave traders who continue to victimize our people,” he said.
