(Eagle News) – The Department of Labor and Employment has qualified the government’s total ban on overseas Filipino workers to Kuwait, saying this only referred to “all types of workers being deployed for the first time for overseas employment in Kuwait.”
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III clarified the “general coverage” of department issued Administrative Order No. 54 regarding the total ban on the deployment of OFWs in Kuwait.
“The deployment ban covers all types of workers being deployed for the first time for overseas employment in Kuwait, without distinction as to skill, profession or type of work,” stated AO No. 54a issued on February 14, 2018.
There are three groups of workers not covered by the ban.
“The ban does not include workers who are vacationing in the Philippines and will be returning to the same employer to finish their contracts, at the end of his/her vacation,” it said.
“Balik Manggawa workers who are returning to Kuwait on a new contract with the same employer” are also exempted from the ban, so are “seafarers who will be transiting through or boarding in Kuwait to join their principals.”
But Bello said that “Balik Manggagawa” or returning OFWs to Kuwait on a new contract with the same employer, “shall require prior clearance from the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA).”
He said the “order takes effect immediately.”