(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that the deployment ban on Filipino workers to Kuwait stands, but said he may consider lifting it if both governments would come up with a “complete agreement” that would ensure the safety and welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
“Until I’m sure that everything…we’ll have to come up with an agreement that would be complete. Pass ports taken by the employer, no day-off, they are only allowed to sleep almost four hours, three hours, and sometimes their meals are garbage. These are the things that have to be sorted out, before I will agree to deploy Filipinos outside,” the President said in his speech during the induction of the incoming board of directors of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (Phil.), Inc. (FICCI) at the Rizal Hall in Malacañan Palace.
The President said so far, he was trying to convince Filipino workers abroad to return home as the country was running short of skilled workers.
He said there was a need for these, especially now that the country was moving toward economic and infrastructural development.
“So the plumbers, the guy must know how to build the pipes there because if you get one from just anywhere there, when you flush the toilet the water will go up, and not go down the drain,’ he said.
President Duterte ordered a total ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait following the death of Joanna Demafelis, who was found in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in the Middle Eastern country.
The Department of Labor and Employment officially imposed the ban on Feb. 12.