DAVAO CITY, Philippines, 23 October 2005 — The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has announced that it is offering “free deployment” assistance to female workers from the southern Philippines who intend to work as domestic helpers in Kuwait.
In a press statement, the POEA said the government, through its Special Employment Program for Mindanao, will shoulder the expenses on placement fees, passport processing, training fees, medical fees and airfare of women in Mindanao who intend to work as domestic help.
Expenses to be incurred, however, are to be deducted from the worker’s salary. A worker will receive a monthly salary of 8, 400 pesos after deductions shall have been made.
Kuwait employers give an average of P11,200 minimum wage as mandated by law.
“The difference between Special Employment Program salary and the regular salary in Kuwait is that it is meant to offset the costs, which were borne during the free deployment of the applicants,” POEA Chief Francis Domingo said in the press statement. He said the program was initially offered for to workers returning from Sabah, Malaysia, but only a few availed of it and so it was offered to applicants only from other parts of Mindanao. “
He announced the launching of the Special Employment Program for Mindanao in which 1,000 slots for female domestic helpers bound for Kuwait for each month are allocated for female applicants. But the demand is foreseen to increase to 2,000 toward the end of the year, he said.
Applicants for the Special Employment Program for Mindanao is open only to women aged 21 to 40.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment, Kuwait accounted for the most number of distressed Filipino female workers last year.
