A Filipino domestic worker had recently been raped while she was in Kuwait’s international airport. Based on news reports, the rapist was a member of the airport’s security unit. The same report said that it was the Kuwait employer of the domestic worker that reported the incident to government authorities.
Our kababayan had just landed in Kuwait when she came across the security officer at the airport’s passport control. Based on reports, the officer stamped her passport and asked the overseas worker to follow him. Details are scant on where the rape actually took place. One news item said that the airport security officer forced the victim into his car and drove to an isolated area where the rape happened. She was returned to the airport. It was also alleged that the perpetrator did not report back to work and is now missing. The Kuwaiti police had already issued a warrant for his arrest.
I am sadly aware of how several domestic workers have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence by their foreign employers, and sometimes even by the employers’ next of kin. This is the first time that a Filipino maid had been abducted from the international airport and raped by a member of its security personnel, then brought back to the arrival area as if nothing malevolent had transpired.
I say this now. Our government must make its outrage over this rape incident crystal clear. Can you imagine if this happened at Naia? President Duterte would have a fit! Heads would certainly roll and PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde would waste no time displaying the pervert’s bowed head before the media. Meanwhile, the victim’s physical and emotional well-being is paramount. The innocent one desires only to work, and now a man in uniform had stripped her of that selfless dream. The Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration led by Administrator Hans Cacdac can coordinate the necessary assistance in order for her to recover from this ordeal.
My sources tell me that the worker prefers that her family not be told. It breaks the heart to know that she would bear this wretched, undeserved, invisible scar for the rest of her life. We owe it to her and to all migrant women who intend to set foot in Kuwait, to make sure that the rapist is found and serve time for what he did. Castration would have been a more apt penalty, considering the brazen, diabolical manner by which this security officer chose to “secure” his victim.
I say this now. Our bilateral relations with Kuwait deserve reexamination if justice eludes the rape victim. If even at their airport, there is failure to secure the rights and welfare of our domestic workers, then how truly safe are they in Kuwait? The Department of Foreign Affairs must make sure that the rapist is caught and put behind bars, and for the airport authorities to make the necessary amends with our aggrieved worker. Considering that she is one of us, our embassy must also demand that security protocols and reforms be undertaken to ensure that nothing of this sort ever happens again.
Dear Reader, what if this had happened to your daughter, or sister or mother? I don’t know the identity of the rape victim and she certainly is entitled to privacy. But, I certainly want to know the identity of the perpetrator. I want to see his ugly face plastered all over social media. I want him shamed not just in Kuwait and in the Philippines, but all over the world. I want him stripped of his uniform and his badge, and placed at the most crowded detention cell where bending down would expose him to a painful variety of penetrating options.
At the very least, the perpetrator must be punished under the full force of Kuwaiti law.
I wish him a Mount Everest of pain. And for our lovely sister, we send our collective hug. May we never know who you are because that darkest episode in your life should in no way define your present and future.
Justice must prevail. If not, can we please stop sending domestic workers to Kuwait?
Susan V. Ople heads the Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute, a nonprofit organization that deals with labor and migration issues. She also represents the OFW sector in the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.