The following article of Gulf Business of January 24th, 2018 would not come as a surprise. It is perhaps due to the specific character of the Filipino leader threatening the Gulf countries to block any filipino manpower movement. It was his reacting to his fellow country people mistreatment. It is above all because of the precarious life that the millions of Filipinos and Filipinas notably in the GCC countries are still leading. Life that is lately turning more and more arduous as the Arab Gulf countries seem to have entered a new phase. VAT apart, taxation generally and especially that on the expatriates’ remittances being mulled here and there are not helping. Other bureaucratic requirements and all sorts of administrative blockages to all foreign workers are noticeably heavier. In effect the Gulf countries by implementing new strategies in favour of the local youth as well as empowerment of local women seem to be turning all the countries of the GCC less and less in need of all that expatriate manpower. Moreover, start-ups making their mark in the local national populations leave very little room if not at all for the enterprising foreign youth. No political rights whatsoever were ever to be had but new relations are forming, and the Philippines would be by now feeling the pinch after years of easy and regular Dollar inflows.
So here is that Gulf Business Middle East article where the president’s comments come less than a week after he banned Filipinos from working in Kuwait.
Philippines’ Duterte threatens Middle East work ban
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to ban his countrymen and women from working in the Middle East over concerns of mistreatment.
The premier’s comments on Wednesday come less than a week after he banned Filipinos from working in Kuwait after four domestic workers were abused and committed suicide.
A ban would affect the more than two million Filipinos currently employed across the Middle East, many as maids and retail workers.
“One more incident about a woman, a Filipina worker being raped there, committing suicide, I’m going to stop — I’m going to ban” Filipinos working, Duterte said before boarding a flight to attend a regional summit in India, according to AFP.
“And I’m sorry to all the Filipinos there, they can all go home.
“Let me be blunt about this because Kuwait has always been an ally. But please do something about it and for the other countries of the Middle East.”
Philippine foreign secretary Alan Peter Cayetano was separately quoted as saying that Duterte had reacted to a report detailing abuses in Kuwait.
He said there was a “grave concern” about the incidents in the country, which is home to 250,000 Filipino nationals. Those already working in Kuwait are unaffected by the ban.
Officials from both sides have met over the last week with Kuwait initially expressing surprise that the Philippines had taken such a drastic step.
Cayetano said the country was “sending a message” to end the abuse of its citizens working abroad.
An estimated 10 million Filipinos work abroad, and they send billions of dollars in remittances home each year.
Read: Philippines stops transfer of workers to Kuwait
