More than 270,000 Filipinos live and work in Kuwait Kuwait will also ease visa restrictions for Filipinos Manila: The deployment of Filipino workers to Kuwait will soon resume, the Department of Migrant Workers said on Wednesday after more than a year of suspension caused by increasing reports of abuse of migrant workers in the Gulf state. With about 270,000 Filipinos, mostly women, living and working in Kuwait, the Philippines has been working to tackle issues related to the community, sparked by the gruesome murder of domestic worker Jullebee Ranara that prompted Manila last February to suspend the sending of first-time workers to the Arab country. The two countries went through a diplomatic stalemate after Kuwait in May 2023 moved to suspend the issuance of new visas for all those who did not already have residence permits, including tourists, students and businessmen. As Kuwaiti authorities prepare to ease those restrictions, the DMW said it would “pave the way for the resumption of the deployment of professional, skilled, and semi-skilled Filipino workers to Kuwait.” “The Department of Migrant Workers assures OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) who will be deployed to Kuwait of stronger protection and enhanced monitoring of their conditions as a result of the agreement between the Philippine government and Kuwait,” the DMW said in a statement. The two countries reached an agreement on Monday, which involves the creation of a joint committee to address labor affairs, according to a report by the Kuwait News Agency. The resumption of workers’ deployment will “take maybe about two weeks to one month,” DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac said, because officials “need some time to work on the regulations” and other matters related to the decision. “The resolution is a continuing manifestation of the cordiality, of the friendship, between the two nations,” he said. Migrant workers organizations in the Philippines welcomed the latest development. “The resumption is a welcome development as it will give opportunity to many unemployed applicants for household service workers, many of them coming from the countryside, mostly from Muslim Mindanao,” Loreto Soriano, president emeritus of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters, told Arab News. “It is also a manifestation of the strong diplomatic relation between the Philippines and Kuwait.” Arnold Mamaclay, president of the Philippine Employment Agencies and Associates for Corporate Employees in the Middle East, commended the Philippine government for the progress. “We’re glad to note that … OFW welfare protection mechanisms used in Saudi Arabia, which we observed to be effective, will now be implemented in Kuwait,” he said.