(Eagle News) — Kuwaiti authorities have detained two Filipinos who were reportedly encouraging Filipino housemaids to escape from their employers’ households.
A report by the Kuwait News Agency (KNA) said this was announced by the Kuwait Ministry of Interior MoI) on Sunday, April 22.
Quoting the MoI, the KNA said the Filipinos confessed to the “crime in addition to other similar offenses that had been committed in various regions of the country.”
“The authorities have launched investigations into such recurring cases following citizens’ protest that their domestic helpers have been lured by strangers,” the KNA said.
The development comes following the Kuwaiti government’s reported summon of the Philippine ambassador in the Middle Eastern country.
A report on Kuwaiti News Agency said the ambassador was also handed protest notes over the recent remarks of several Filipino officials which the report said “entailed serious offenses against the State.”
The report said the protest notes were also over the “actions made by some Philippine embassy’s employees in violation of the diplomatic norms governing the relations of the two countries as per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
The report was apparently referring to the rounds made by embassy officials to rescue abused Overseas Filipino Workers in the Middle Eastern country dubbed “Rescue in the Desert,” videos of which were posted on social media.
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration deputy administrator Arnel Ignacio said in a radio interview that the rescue, without the knowledge of the police, was a crime under Kuwaiti law.
As such, he said that videos of the rescue operation should not have been posted on social media.
“Ang mga nag-rescue alam na alam nila na matinding krimen iyan sa Kuwait. So that’s why kung gagawin iyan it’s a covert operation,” he said.