Deployment Ban of First-Time OFWs to Kuwait in Effect

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has begun enforcing the deployment ban on first-time Filipino workers to Kuwait, an official said on Wednesday. Appearing before a public hearing called by the Senate Committee on Migrant Workers which Sen. Rafael "Raffy" Tulfo heads, DMW Undersecretary Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones said affected OFWs would be offered alternative jobs in Singapore and Hongkong.

Allones told the committee investigating the murder of Jullebee Ranara, a 35-year-old OFW in Kuwait that it was the deployment of first-time or newly-hired household workers bound for Kuwait that had been suspended. The DMW official added that the deployment ban was ordered by DMW Secretary Susan "Toots" Ople before joining President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for an official working visit to Japan.

Velasco-Allones, however, clarified that OFWs bound for Kuwait with old employment contracts were not affected. She said that Secretary Ople has ordered the deferment of applications of all first-time migrant workers, particularly, the household services workers until reforms are in place as a result of the scheduled bilateral talks between the Philippines and Kuwait.