Philippines Sends Officials to Kuwait after Diplomatic Fallout

A Philippines spokesman on Thursday said a special team of government officials met with their Kuwaiti counterparts over a diplomatic fallout that led to the arrest of four embassy employees in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who left Tuesday night to join the team led by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello, said the Philippine delegation met with their counterparts and that both countries look forward to the normalization of ties.

“Kuwait, on its part, has expressed the value of Filipinos in Kuwait,” Roque said in a statement, adding that an agreement expected to be signed by both countries aims at improving labor conditions of the thousands of Filipino workers there.

About 260,000 Filipinos live in Kuwait, many of them employed as domestic workers. The Philippine economy is dependent on foreign remittances with about 10 percent of the country’s population working overseas and sending money home.

Roque said Kuwait agreed to create a special unit within its police force that the Philippine embassy can contact at all hours to respond to cases of complaints by Filipino workers.

Kuwait also agreed to free four Filipinos employed by the Philippine Embassy who were detained after Kuwait expelled Manila’s envoy about two weeks ago after a social media posting soured relations between the countries.

Kuwait expelled envoy Renato Villa after declaring him unacceptable following an embassy-coordinated rescue of Filipino domestic helpers who allegedly had been abused by their employers. The mission was recorded and shared on social media by the foreign department, angering Kuwait.

President Rodrigo Duterte had sought to appease Kuwait and met with its ambassador. The presidential palace said the labor issue had been ironed out, only to be told by Kuwait that it had expelled Villa and recalled its own ambassador to Manila.

The dispute erupted as both nations were negotiating an end to a ban imposed by Duterte on sending workers following the discovery of a slain Filipina worker stuffed inside a refrigerator in February. Duterte lashed out at Kuwait, after receiving reports of the woman identified as Joanna Defames.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.