Hundreds of Filipino workers leave Kuwait amid diplomatic row

More than 300 Filipino domestic workers left Kuwait for the Philippines on Wednesday, availing of their government's offer of a free flight home. They join an estimated 2,000 workers who have returned to the southeast Asian nation since January 29, according to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

The move to repatriate citizens from the Gulf state follows the death of several Filipino workers, including 29-year-old Joanna Demafelis, who was found in her employer's freezer last week.

Her body may have been hidden there for over a year.

Diplomatic row

Last month, the Philippines issued a deployment ban of overseas workers to Kuwait where over 250,000 Filipinos are working. President Rodrigo Duterte said abuse went unchecked and had driven several domestic workers to suicide.

Duterte added he would extend the ban to any other country where abuses of Filipino workers were registered.

Many who returned were Filipinos who took Kuwait's amnesty programme for undocumented and overstaying workers.

Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Cayetano said Kuwait had vowed to resolve the Filipino maid's death and agreed to discuss measures for Filipinos to complain about abuse and labour concerns to the government.

Kuwait extended an invitation to Duterte on Monday for an official visit to mend diplomatic ties with the southeast Asian country, said the state's news agency KUNA.

Over two million Filipinos are working in Gulf states including Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, many as household workers.