The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has revealed that the government has already deported nearly 1,200 Filipinos during the first 9 months of this year for having committed various offenses during their stay in the Gulf State.
Since 2010, the total population of expats in Kuwait has already crossed the 1 million mark, with Filipinos comprising 3-5% of the country’s population.
Over 1,000 Filipinos Deported from Kuwait in Last 9 Months
According to the Interior Ministry, the deportees were within around 18,000 expatriates expelled by the oil-rich Gulf country during that period for offenses concerning visa violations and labor code infractions, traffic and criminal offenses, as well as a contagious disease, as shared in a report by the Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas.
Of note, the ministry also revealed that the deportees were comprised of 12,000 men and 6,000 women.
According to the report, Indians accounted for more than a third of the total deportees, with around 5,000 followed by Bangladeshis with 2,500 deportees.
Additionally, the figure also comprised nearly 2,100 Nepalese, 1,700 Ethiopians, 1,400 Sri Lankans and 1,200 Filipinos. The rest include other Arabs, Asians, and Westerners, according to the paper.
In other related news, the Philippines and Kuwait are once again at odds as the Philippine Embassy and the Public Authority of Manpower could be heading towards more complications, as the former insists on using the domestic help contract authenticated by authorities in Manila, while the latter refuses to honor any contract it does not issue and refuses to deal with any external contracts or papers that are attached to its approved contract.
Commenting on the surfacing issue, an official at the manpower authority explained that the recognized contract is the Kuwaiti one which does not differentiate between nationalities in rights and duties since it follows the premise that the law applies to all without exception or any special treatment.
The official shared that the authority will not allow dealing with any contracts or papers attached to its approved contract that commits sponsors to conditions contrary to the signed agreement, including giving the Philippines the authority to prosecute sponsors in international courts.
The concern at the Filipino side of things regarding contract arrangements come from a number of ill-fated incidents that have happened within the last year to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based in Kuwait.
Filipino officials, for their part, contend that the text of the Philippine contract for domestic help has been in use all over the world for years, adding that talks with regards to the model contract continue between officials of both countries.
In line with this, a meeting of the bilateral committee will be held during the last week of this month to discuss the final details of the contract arrangement.