The Philippine government has imposed a total ban on deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait. On Monday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, under instruction from President Rodrigo Duterte, issued an administrative order that imposed the total deployment ban, CNN Philippines reported.
“In pursuit of national interest, a total ban on deployment of all [Filipino workers] to Kuwait pursuant to the directive of the president is hereby enforced. Order takes effect immediately,” Bello said.
The ban comes after a Filipino domestic worker’s body was found in a freezer in an apartment in Kuwait.
Duterte ordered the Department of Labor and Employment to pull all distressed Filipinos out of Kuwait within 72 hours, The Manila Times reported.
“Those who want to be repatriated, with or without money, I will ask Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to provide the transportation,” Duterte said.
“I want them out of the country. We will count our lives by the hours because apparently, every hour, there is a suffering and agony, brutality committed [against] Filipinos,” he said.