NOT a single Filipino household service worker (HSW) has been deployed to Kuwait 45 days after the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Kuwait and the Philippines was signed.
The MOU was arrived at on May 16, President Duterte and ranking Kuwait officials agreed on measures to regulate employment following a diplomatic row over the alleged abuse of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in the Middle East emirate. The most shocking case of abuse involved OFW Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found in a freezer in her Lebanese and Syrian employers’ house.
Present during the May 16 MOU signing were Foreign Secretary Alan S. Peter Cayetano and Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III.
Recruitment consultant Manny Geslani explained why no HSW has been deployed to Kuwait despite the signing of the MOU: Implementing guidelines have yet to be enforced by the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA).
The guideline was to govern the rules for deployment of HSWs to Kuwait, “as soon as possible,” Geslani added.
Duterte ordered the “total lifting” of the ban for all types of workers to Kuwait, including skilled workers and HSWs.
POEA Administrator Bernard Olalia is supposed to spell out the provisions of the MOU that includes a new unified contract of employment for HSWs to be agreed upon by the Philippines and Kuwait
Bello has issued the administrative orders lifting the ban for domestic workers, while the POEA has issued Memorandum Circular No. 10, series 2018, spelling out the requirements for Private Recruitment Agencies and their counterparts.
The new edict requires that Foreign Placement Agencies should set up an escrow account for a minimum of $10,000. Another requirement is the registration of the HSW with Kuwait’s health insurance system.
Thousands of applicants recruited by private agencies, Geslani said, have been cooling their heels in Manila waiting for the guidelines to be implemented by the POEA. Several thousands more in the provinces are looking forward to the normalization of deployment of HSWs to Kuwait.
Meanwhile, the POEA has sternly warned recruitment agencies and accredited language and non-licensed training centers to stop the recruitment of caregivers going
to Japan.
In an advisory, it was learned that some recruitment agencies associated with recruitment associations whose market is Japan have been training caregivers and care assistants for the Japanese market under the Japan Technical Intern Training Program.
The POEA warned applicants to be wary of unauthorized persons or groups who promised various jobs
in Japan. “Only licensed recruitment agencies on the list are qualified as “Sending Organization” for the Japan Technical Intern Training Program,” Geslani said.