A Filipino nurse in Kuwait fears going home to the Philippines for a visit as she might not be allowed to return to her job in the Middle Eastern country because of a possible travel ban by President Rodrigo Duterte’s government.
The woman, who has three children studying in the Philippines, wants to go home to attend their graduations but now is afraid to do so, Interaksyon reported.
One of her children, Patricia Lee Yanga, who will be graduating from university next month, said her mother had been planning to return home since last year to attend the graduations of her children.
“Because of Duterte’s threats of [a] travel ban, she is afraid that she might not be able to go back to Kuwait,” Yanga said.
She said her mother had been working in Kuwait for 10 years and had not experienced any form of abuse.
Philippine Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III is expected to arrive in Kuwait on Monday for the signing of the new agreement on the protection of Filipino domestic workers, Business Mirror reported.
“I will be meeting with my counterpart, the minister of labor, as well as the ministers of foreign affairs [and] interior and their ambassador,” Bello said.
According to Bello, the ban on deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait, which Duterte said would be permanent, may be lifted once the agreement is signed, CNN Philippines reported. Numerous abuse cases in Kuwait and even killings have been reported over the years, which prompted the ban.
“The deployment ban will stay as long as the memorandum of understanding is not yet signed. If the MoU is signed, there might be even a partial lifting of the deployment ban,” Bello said.