Two Filipinos arrested for encouraging house helpers escape in Kuwait

Kuwait arrested two Filipinos for allegedly urging Filipino maids to escape their employers, state-run Kuwait News Agency said, as a new diplomatic row is brewing over the Philippines’ rescue of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) there.

Citing Kuwait’s interior ministry, the Kuwait News Agency said that “inspectors have detained two Filipinos as they were enticing female housemaids of the same nationality to escape from their employers’ households.”

During interrogations, the two Filipinos admitted the crime “in addition to other similar offenses that had been committed in various regions of the country,” said Kuwait’s interior ministry.

Kuwait News Agency said “the couple admitted that they had encouraged Filipinas serving in their employers’ houses to escape.”

“The authorities have launched investigations into such recurring cases following citizens’ protest that their domestic helpers have been lured by strangers,” added Kuwait’s state-run news outlet.

This comes after Kuwait’s foreign ministry summoned Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa after a video showed embassy officials rescuing Filipino domestic workers from Kuwaiti homes.

Kuwait’s foreign ministry handed Villa two protest notes. The ministry “expressed regret over such practices which could harm the friendship between the two countries,” said the Kuwait News Agency.