Philippines allegedly ups age for domestic workers who are ‘allowed’ to work abroad

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Bid to protect from human trafficking

KUWAIT CITY, July 17: The Philippines government has raised the employment age of its domestic workers who are allowed to work outside the country to 24 years to “protect them from human trafficking,” according to informed sources who told Al-Qabas that the decision will soon be applied to Filipino workers brought to Kuwait and other countries. Commenting on this, the specialist in domestic labor affairs, Bassam Al-Shammari, denied that changing the age of domestic workers or raising their age will have any effect on bringing Filipinos into Kuwait, stressing that “Kuwaiti offices adhere to the conditions that labor exporting countries want to apply.”

Regarding the situation of Filipino domestic workers in the Kuwaiti market, Al- Shammari said that “the general situation of the domestic labor market is stable and there is a positive movement of new contracts, but the fees associated with travel tickets and contracts are still high and do not match the pricing of the Ministry of Commerce which has set the price at 890 dinars.”

He pointed out that the price of tickets for the Filipino worker’s travel to Kuwait is “one way”, and ranges between 275 and 295 dinars currently, expecting a review of the pricing of new contracts for offices, by the Ministry of Commerce, noting that “separating the ticket from the current price could be a satisfactory solution for all parties, the contract price from the office is 890 dinars, without the travel ticket borne by the contract holder. It is noteworthy that the volume of Filipino domestic workers in the country rose during the first three months of this year to 141,000 workers, an increase of 5,631 over the figures recorded at the end of last year.

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