KUWAIT: The Philippine government has denied suspending the recruitment of household service workers (domestic helpers) to Kuwait. Speaking to the Kuwait Times in a telephonic interview from Manila, Jennifer Manalili, Head of Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) denied receiving any directive from the Filipino government. However, he noted a suspension order issued by the ambassador should be passed in coordination with proper channels when there are issues to be resolved. "I don't really
know the issue that led to the ambassador issuing a suspension order as you have mentioned. So, I cannot comment further on that, but as of now, the Filipino government has not suspended any recruitment of our housemaids to Kuwait," Manalili added.

Yesterday, Filipino Ambassador Ricardo Endaya allegedly suspended the processing (of contracts for domestic workers) in Kuwait until the Philippine Overseas Labor Office repatriates around 220 runaway housemaids sheltered there. Labor Attache Josephus Jimenez, in a telephone interview to the newspaper, clarified that the increase in the number of runaway housemaids cannot be blamed entirely on recruitment agencies. He asserted that the number has been fluctuating for the last few months.

While I fully agree that some agencies should be punished and suspended for displaying a lack of cooperation, but we cannot entirely blame the agencies for that. They (housemaids) are running away because their rights are violated by employers, and it's not the recruitment agencies to be blamed," he pointed out. He said that there are many factors that prompt housemaids to runaway and seek the embassy's assistance. "First, in the last few months, rumors of amnesty have been doing the rounds. So many are
running away. Second, there are actual violations of their rights by employers. So, housemaids seek our help," he explained.

In an SMS message that was sent to Manalili, which Jimenez also re-directed to the Kuwait Times, he explained that the ambassador has suspended authentication of contracts that emanate from about 20 foreign recruitment agencies and about 15 Filipino recruitment agencies in order to pressure them (agencies) to produce passports and tickets for runaway housemaids. He explained that it was not imposed on all the recruitment agencies in Kuwait.

We are processing contracts as usual, provided they not originate from the 35 recruitment agencies which we have previously suspended. Please clarify that we did not suspend the agency, we only suspend the processing of contracts to recruit housemaids. In fact, just now I signed dozens of contracts. We only deny recruitment agencies which are included in the suspension order and not all the recruitment agencies," he clarified. He said that as per the Ambassador Endaya's directive, even if two runaway hou
semaids are present at the embassy's shelter it will halt the processing of (recruitment agency) contracts. "That was the issue and we hope the matter is crystal clear now," he concluded.