Missing OFW in Saudi Arabia found comatose in Kuwait


KIDAPAWAN CITY — A Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia who has been reported missing was found comatose in a hospital in Kuwait, baffling her relatives in the Philippines.
Relatives of Norisa Manambit, 36, learned about her location and condition through a Facebook post by a Filipino nurse, who said she posted the video to inform the OFW's relatives of her situation.
Interviewed on Catholic-ran dxND radio here, Manambit's niece, Lady Mae Besa, said they reported Manambit missing to her agency last January after weeks of failing to contact her. She said their last communication with her aunt was in the last quarter of 2017.
According to Besa, her aunt left the Philippines in 2017 to work as a domestic helper in Dammam in Saudi Arabia, and it surprised them to learn that she is now in a coma in a Kuwaiti hospital.
"How can that be? We were so sure she went to Dammam, Saudi Arabia.   How did she arrive in Kuwait?" Besa said.
Besa said they learned from Manambit's friends in Saudi Arabia that Manambit had a heated argument with her employer last January after the employer caught her using a mobile phone.
The altercation allegedly resulted to a fight that led her employer to call for police and had Manambit locked inside a prison cell.
"But when friends visited my aunt in Dammam prison, they did not find her there," she said.
After learning this, Besa said they sought help of Manambit's agency in the Philippines where a staff member supposedly told them not to report the incident to the media or to the government while they are still making a follow-up of her case.
"But weeks had passed and we were not given yet the information that we need to appease us," Besa said. "The agency has promised to update us of my aunt's case. But until now, they would only give us false promises."
She said the agency could not also inform them of Manambit's real health condition.
Manambit has gone twice to Saudi Arabia to work as house help before she was reported missing in January. Besa said her aunt is a documented worker.
Besa expressed their concern over Manambit's situation in light of the case of Joanna Demafelis, an OFW who was found dead inside a freezer in Kuwait.
Demafelis' case has prompted the Philippine government to ban the deployment of first-time OFWs to Kuwait.
"We are praying she's okay," Besa said. "But we're in a limbo that is why we're so worried." —KBK, GMA News

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