THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT has initiated discussions with four countries, including Kuwait, for agreements that will improve the protection of Filipino migrant workers against various forms of abuse and violence.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on “labor cooperation” with Kuwait, Saudi   Arabia, Lebanon, and Israel are currently “under negotiation,” and these “are intended to improve the working conditions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and to protect their rights.”

“They are in various stages of negotiation now, and they are being fast-tracked.”

As for the deployment ban on overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to Kuwait, Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Ernesto C. Abella said this is expected to remain in place in the immediate future.

“The Philippine government would not be lifting the deployment ban in Kuwait any time soon, in line with President (Rodrigo R.) Duterte’s instructions to ensure that OFWs are adequately protected abroad,” Mr. Abella said in a press conference yesterday.

The government is also looking into the creation of a Cabinet cluster that will be tasked to recommend the concrete steps needed to protect the rights and ensure the delivery of services and benefits to OFWs.

The DFA official also reaffirmed the President’s stance that the administration’s priority with regards to migrant workers “is not so much on economics.”

“As long as their rights are protected, or they are protected,” he said.

Mr. Abella cited the Kafala System, or sponsorship system, that is applied in Middle East nations and serves as a vehicle for abuses.

He could not say, however, if this matter is part of the ongoing MoU negotiations.

“As far as how it is going to be framed and what part of the MoU, we are not privy at this stage of the development of the language. But it has been recommended. One official actually suggested that the ban must remain until that (Kafala System) is lifted. Although, of course, that’s a deep-seated cultural practice… It has been recommended that the system must be officially addressed,” he said. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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