Senators examine death of Filipino worker in Kuwait

Описание: (21 Feb 2018) LEAD IN:
Senators in the Philippines have been holding an inquiry into the death of a domestic worker in Kuwait.
The body of Joanna Demafelis was found stuffed in a freezer earlier this month.

STORY-LINE:
Filipino politicians take their seats for an inquiry into the death of one of their countrywomen.
Joanna Demafelis was a domestic worker in Kuwait.
Her body was found in a freezer in a Kuwait City apartment reportedly abandoned since November 2016.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said her body bore torture marks and there were indications she was strangled.
"How painful is it for a child, sibling, parents, a friend who you have not seen for a long time because they are in another country working, almost being a slave to another race then they will return home lifeless inside a box," Senator Joel Villanueva, Chairman of the committee on labour, tells the hearing.
"Maltreated, killed and stuffed inside a freezer. It's very brutal, very cruel."
Demafelis' family had not heard from her since 2016. Her body was discovered earlier this month.
The death is just the latest overseas tragedy to befall a worker from the Philippines.
The senator says 185 Filipinos have died overseas in the last two years.
The country is a major labour exporter with about a tenth of its 100 million people working abroad.
The money those workers send home has propped up the southeast Asian nation's economy, accounting for about 10 percent of annual gross domestic product.
But officials are under increasing pressure to do more to monitor the safety of its worldwide diaspora of mostly house maids, construction workers and labourers.
Arman Hernando, chairperson of pressure group Migrante International, is leading a protest outside the Senate building.
"It's the lack of comprehensive protection for countrymen. The abusers commit abuses because they know that the victims will not get justice," he says.
Duterte has ordered a ban on the deployment of new Filipino workers to Kuwait, where he said some Filipino workers have committed suicide due to abuses.
Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Cayetano said Kuwait had expressed outrage over Demafelis' death and promised do everything it could to render justice.
He said the Philippines lodged a protest over the case and at least six other recent deaths, mostly of Filipino housemaids in Kuwait, and asked that the Philippine Embassy be given access to investigations by Kuwaiti authorities.

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