Kuwait open to negotiate with Philippines on entry ban if conditions met: Ministry

Kuwait is open to negotiating with the Philippines on the visa ban for Filipino nationals if Manila adheres to the country’s demands, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mansour al-Otaibi said.

The conditions include the Philippines admitting that its embassy violated Kuwaiti laws and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, local media cited the deputy minister as saying.

“These violations should be stopped by the Philippine Embassy, and we hope to resolve them in the coming period,” Kuwait Times quoted al-Otaibi as saying.

“The Philippines must acknowledge the violations committed by its embassy, pledge not to repeat them and hold perpetrators accountable,” he added.

On May 24, Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior said it would “continue halting [the] issuance of any types of visas for the Philippines nationals as Manila rejected Kuwait’s conditions aimed to prevent recurrence of worker violations.

The Ministry of Interior affirmed [the} rejection of any infringement on Kuwait’s sovereignty or the dignity of Kuwaiti nationals,” the statement said, adding that the violations were considered “a red line.”

According to the Public Authority of Manpower, the Philippines Embassy asked recruitment offices to remove domestic helpers from Kuwaiti homes under the pretext that their work contracts ended.

The embassy also pressured recruitment offices to illegally house domestic workers, as well as forced them to include conditions in employment contracts that the employers did not agree to, the authority said.

The embassy also allegedly forced recruitment offices to search for runaway maids, bypassing official agencies in the country.

Earlier this May, Kuwait had announced that it would halt all types of work and entry visas for Filipinos under orders from the interior minister except for the renewal of residence permits of Filipinos currently with legal status.

The ban on Filipinos in Kuwait came a few months after the rape and murder of domestic worker Jullebee Ranara by a Kuwaiti teenager in January 2023 sparked outrage in the Philippines over the mistreatment of workers in the Gulf country.

Almost 268,000 Filipino workers are currently employed in Kuwait.

According to data from the Philippines’ Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), there were more than 24,000 cases of violation and abuse against Filipino workers in 2022 alone.

The DMW instances of abuse against Filipino workers have increased in recent years, with dozens reporting cases of rape, human trafficking, labor contract violations, and illegal terminations.