The Kuwaiti-Filipino meeting on domestic workers did not produce promising results, according to what private sources say, considering that at the same time it is not completely pessimistic.
The sources said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is following up the issue of Filipino domestic workers and Manila’s announcement to suspend sending new workers to Kuwait, where a joint meeting was held that brought together the Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs, Ambassador Samih Issa Johar Hayat, with the Filipino Chargé d’Affaires to Kuwait to discuss the issue from its various aspects, reports Al-Rai daily.
The sources pointed out that Kuwait expressed its surprise at the sudden and unjustified shift in the Filipino position, especially since the official statements in Manila confirmed that there was no intention to escalate the case after the killing of the worker in Kuwait.
The sources added, “The Filipino suspension of domestic workers is temporary, and Manila has no desire to make it permanent, but it is (an opportunity) for them to put more pressure on Kuwait to win additional gains for the benefit of their workers,” stressing that “the gains required today are considered unacceptable because Kuwait had in the past in rejected them during negotiations.”
The sources stated that “the required amendments from the Filipino side will be at the expense of the Kuwaiti employer, and this is what Kuwait will not accept, nor will it accept the pressure tactics as a method to achieve gains,” noting that “the relations between the two countries are old and solid, and individual and emergency incidents should not be exploited for pressure.”
The sources revealed that “Kuwait is studying the various options available to it as an alternative to Filipino labor,” indicating that “Kuwait does not want to reach that, but the pressure method will not work, and it will not be forced into what was previously rejected.”