AFTER more than one year, the Kuwait labor market is now being reopened for Filipino skilled workers and experienced household service workers, according to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
In an online media briefing yesterday, Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said selected overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may soon be deployed to Kuwait which stopped hiring from the Philippines in May 2023.
“Following the talks of DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia and Kuwaiti authorities, including the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior, there were discussions regarding the reopening of deployment,” said Cacdac.
“There will be the resumption of deployment for skilled workers and domestic workers for those with working experience as domestic workers abroad,” he added.
To recall, the Kuwaiti government indefinitely suspended the visa issuance to Filipino workers in early May 2023 amid a row over worker protection. In February last year, Manila stopped the first-time deployment of domestic workers to Kuwait after the body of domestic worker Jullebee Ranara was found in the Kuwaiti desert a month earlier.
Since the suspension of visa issuance, the DMW has repeatedly expressed its readiness to continue labor talks with Kuwait.
According to Cacdac, they are looking to issue a new set of guidelines regarding OFW deployment to Kuwait.
“It will take about two weeks or a month for the adjustment period, to set the issuances. We just need time to work the regulations and issuances pertaining to the resumption of deployment,” he said.
“When the regulations come out, only then will there be recruitment. So, it will take a certain period of time. But definitely within the year, most likely not beyond this quarter (is the deployment),” said Cacdac.
