"Kuwait/Philippines: Protect Filipino Migrant Workers", 21 February 2018

The Philippines’ new ban on Filipinos migrating to Kuwait for work is likely to increase abuses of workers who are forced to resort to unsafe and unregulated channels to enter the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Kuwait and the Philippines should instead agree on key reforms that could more effectively protect migrant domestic workers in Kuwait. On January 19, 2018, the Philippines Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) ordered a temporary ban on Filipinos seeking to migrate to Kuwait for work, pending an investigation into seven deaths of domestic workers in the country. On February 12, the Philippines ordered a “total ban” on new workers migrating to Kuwait. “The Philippines should work with Kuwait to protect workers rather than ban them from migrating, which is more likely to cause harm than to help,” said Rothna Begum, Middle East women’s rights researcher. “Kuwait should confront the outcry over deaths, beatings, and rapes of domestic workers by taking immediate steps to reform the kafala system, which traps workers with abusive employers”...