Recruiters welcome Filipino workers, call for diversification --- By Passant Hisham

Recruiters welcome Filipino workers, call for diversification KUWAIT: Recruiters in Kuwait have welcomed the lifting of the ban on issuing visas to Filipinos and the resumption of recruiting domestic workers. Mariam Macapudi, President of the Filipino Association of Secretaries of Employment Agencies in Kuwait (Fil-Aseak) and Founder of Bayaning Filipino Migrant Workers in Kuwait, said the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) assured stronger protection and enhanced monitoring of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) deployed to Kuwait. The deployment will resume following the issuance of policy guidelines, which include implementing a blacklist and whitelist system for recruitment agencies and employers, ensuring timely payment of wages through electronic payment and appointing welfare officers to monitor, report and assist OFWs throughout their stay. Khaled Al-Dakhnan, Chairman of the Kuwait Union of Domestic Labor Offices (KUDLO), expressed hope that reopening visas for Filipino domestic workers could help overcome the financial losses domestic labor offices have faced due to the previous ban. “Around 85 percent of Kuwait’s domestic labor offices were only hiring Filipino domestic helpers, whose work was almost halted for over a year and a half,” he explained, noting that Filipino workers are the most in demand in Kuwait’s domestic labor market. “Kuwaitis are more familiar with dealing with them than any other nationality. They prefer them because of their high level of education and their ability to take excellent care of children, whether they are able-bodied or disabled,” he said. Even though the new measures sound promising for the union, Dakhnan stressed the need to diversify the nationalities of domestic labor to avoid future financial strains resulting from similar sudden bans. “Domestic labor in Kuwait is now limited to Sri Lankan and Filipino workers. We call on the government to open visas for more countries,” he said. According to him, this diversification would also provide more options for Kuwaiti citizens when hiring domestic labor. He pointed out that several African countries send labor to Gulf nations, and Kuwait should consider creating agreements with them. Dakhnan particularly suggested bringing back Indonesian labor, which he believes has been highly demanded by Kuwaitis due to their qualifications being similar to those of Filipino workers.

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