EDITORIAL- Migrants’ tragedy

This time the body didn’t end up in a freezer. The fate that befell Jeanelyn Villavende, however, is no less tragic than that of Joanna Demafelis, whose remains sat in a freezer for a year in her employers’ abandoned apartment in Kuwait before being discovered in 2018.

Demafelis’ Lebanese and Yemeni employers have been sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti court for her gruesome murder, but the convicts are in the custody of their respective governments and any punishment has yet to be carried out. In the case of Villavende, her female Kuwaiti employer has been arrested and charged after the Filipina household service worker was brought to a hospital reportedly “black and blue” and already dead.

The Philippine government cut ties with Kuwait following Demafelis’ murder. The ties were restored in May 2018 after assurances from Kuwait of better protection for overseas Filipino workers. Villavende’s murder clearly shows that the commitment is a work in progress. Villavende was in fact the second OFW to be murdered in Kuwait last year. In May, household service worker Constancia Lago Dayag was also killed allegedly by her employer. Dayag’s body showed signs of heavy beating and sexual abuse.

Following Villavende’s death, the Philippine government is imposing a partial deployment ban to Kuwait covering first time domestic workers. When the body of Demafelis was discovered, President Duterte had also ordered an investigation of reports that other cases of abuse in that country had driven OFWs to suicide.

For sure, there will be new negotiations to promote the welfare of OFWs in Kuwait. There will always be that potential for abuse, however, in societies where there is a yawning social gap between local employers and their migrant workers.

The best protection for the Filipino workforce is to create an environment in their own land where they will see no need to seek employment overseas. Pope Francis, during his visit to the Philippines, had lamented the social costs of the migrant worker phenomenon. The death of Villavende is but the latest reminder of the tragic costs.