Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatens Middle East work ban after maid ‘rapes and suicides’
Kuwait expressed surprise after Duterte said domestic workers were being raped there
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to ban hundreds of thousands of Filipinas from working as maids in the Middle East as he said domestic workers were being raped in Kuwait.
Over two million Filipinos, many of them maids, are employed in the region, helping to prop up the Philippine economy with billions of dollars in salary remittances to their families each year.
Last week, Duterte barred Filipinos from seeking work in Kuwait over reports of widespread abuse, exploitation and deaths, although the ban did not affect workers already in the Gulf state.
“One more incident about a woman, a Filipina worker being raped there, committing suicide, I’m going to stop – I’m going to ban” Filipinos working, he said.
“And I’m sorry to all the Filipinos there, they can all go home.”
“Let me be blunt about this because Kuwait has always been an ally. But please do something about it and for the other countries of the Middle East.”