159 Pinay household workers to be repatriated from Kuwait

By GMA News Online / Pinoy Abroad, on April 26th, 2013

At least 159 Filipina household service workers will be repatriated in the next few weeks when authorities there allow them to leave.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the OFWs are undergoing the last processing stages and will be repatriated in batches of 50 in the next few weeks.
“Recruitment agencies agreed to pay for their airfare after strong representations had been made by (the Philippine Overseas Labor Office),” the DFA said in a news release.
The DFA said Gen. Abdullak Al-Ali, Kuwait Chief of the Office of Domestic Workers Affairs (ODWA), eased a ban on the 159 OFWs, allowing them to return to the Philippines, “in line with ongoing mutual cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait and the Kuwait government on human rights.”
According to the DFA, the OFWs were subjected to a bureaucratic ban on fingerprinting as part of the repatriation process.

Kuwaitis call for reform
An report of the Reuters news agency said hundreds of Kuwaitis held an opposition rally outside the country’s main court complex earlier this month, calling for the release of activists charged with insulting the Gulf Arab state’s ruler and for steps towards political reform.
Major oil producer Kuwait has avoided the kind of severe unrest that has rocked the Arab region over the past two years but demonstrations about local issues are common and generally tolerated.
People sat on chairs set out in front of a stage in a park and listened to speeches from activists. Police gathered outside the entrance to the court complex but kept their distance from the rally, which was peaceful.

Several people wore orange items of clothing, a mark of a protest movement that peaked towards the end of last year with a march of tens of thousands on the eve of a parliamentary election. Protests have dwindled significantly since then.

“We are looking for our rights, for our right to freedom of speech, the freedom to express your opinion,” participant Ghalia al-Ajmi said. She said the rally was part of a series of gatherings aimed at educating people on such topics.
Rights groups say at least 25 people have been charged with offending Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, mainly on social media websites such as Twitter.
Several have already been sentenced to jail terms of up to five years and some of those under arrest have been housed in the court complex, known as the Justice Palace.
Reuters/VVP, GMA News