The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) will no longer process papers of newly-hired household service workers (HSWs) bound for Kuwait beginning Saturday.

This as the partial deployment ban for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Kuwait is set to take effect with the issuance of POEA Governing Board Resolution No. 1-2020.

“Now, therefore, the POEA Governing Board in a meeting duly convened resolves to adopt the said Memorandum and effect a deployment ban for newly-hired domestic workers to Kuwait effective immediately,” said the resolution dated January 3, 2020.

“Resolved that a moratorium on the verification, accreditation, and processing of individual contracts and additional job orders for the same category of workers shall be effected,” it said.

However, the POEA Board said Overseas Employment Certificates (OECs) for the category of workers bound for Kuwait issued on or before 5 pm of January 3 (Friday) shall still be valid for deployment.

The decision was prompted by the maltreatment and death of Jeanelyn Villavende allegedly at the hands of her employers.

This is despite the existing Agreement on Employment of Domestic Workers between the Philippines and Kuwait signed May 2018.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced the plan to impose a partial deployment ban to Kuwait on Thursday.

In February 2018, the Philippines imposed an OFW deployment ban to Kuwait after the body of household worker Joanna Demafelis was found inside a freezer.

The deployment ban was lifted with the signing of the bilateral pact between the Philippines and Kuwait. DMS