30.4.18
A ‘Bargaining Chip’ or Confirmed Labour
Migration Policy?
Call for Clarity to
End Confusion Regarding the Kuwait Deployment Ban
“The ban stays permanently. There will be no more
recruitment for especially domestic helpers. No more,” Duterte told reporters
on Sunday in Davao.
“I would like to address to their patriotism: come home. No matter how
poor we are, we will survive. The economy is doing good and we are short of our
workers,” he said.
The
announcement made by President Duterte that the temporary ban on Filipinos going
to work in Kuwait is now permanent has raised the anxieties of many migrant workers
about their livelihoods, families and futures.
It has also focused attention on the Philippines labour market and
whether it can realistically immediately
provide decent employment with a living wage to the thousands of Filipinos that
could potentially return - given 11 million Filipinos are in part-time jobs or
unemployed. Additionally underemployment and in-work poverty make re-deployment
with all the associated stress and expenses more likely.
President Duterte suggests people could be re-deployed to China, however
there is no guarantee of any improvement in labour conditions there, especially
as they do not have a domestic worker law - unlike Kuwait.
However there is also confusion about whether this is: confirmed
government policy or initial reaction or diplomatic bargaining in an attempt to
secure the release of those arrested following their involvement in the
controversial video ‘rescue’ of migrant workers in Kuwait or to facilitate the
return of undocumented workers or to extract concessions from the Kuwait
government for improved Filipino workers labour conditions or related to trade.
There have been contradictory statements regarding the “permanent” deployment
ban such as:
Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello
said there is no permanent deployment ban of Filipino workers to Kuwait,
following the announcement of President Rodrigo Duterte for such. "The President never mentioned that the
deployment ban has become permanent. That is not true. He never said that. What
the President said is that the Philippines and Kuwait are good friends and are
allies and he does not want the presence of our OFWs (overseas Filipino
workers) there to cause an irritant in that relationship," Bello said
in an interview with CNN Philippines Sunday.
As the
Labor official added he will be meeting with Kuwaiti officials on May 7 to
discuss the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Foreign Affairs officials
and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
Perhaps
then the situation for workers will become clearer?
Until
then the migrant workers struggle has just become harder faced with the
uncertainty about what to do in the short-term (and future) and living with the
tension in Kuwait.
