MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 8, 2012) – A Filipina working in Kuwait was seized, raped and stabbed several times by a man believed to be a policeman, reports said.
The 27-year old woman, who is a native of South Cotabato, was seized by a man who alighted from a police car and told her that she is being arrested because her resident visa has expired.
The man said he would bring her to a police station in South Surra, but ended up in a dark and deserted area where she was repeatedly raped and mauled and then stabbed in neck and different parts of the body and left for dead. But she survived to tell her harrowing ordeal to authorities.
The Arab Times also reported about the ordeal of the Filipina.
The Filipino migrants’ rights group called Migrante-Middle East has appealed to the Philippine government to help the woman, who is now confined at the Mubarak Al Kabeer Hospital.
“The Aquino government should not let this pass and it must instruct the Philippine Embassy officials in Kuwait to provide all the needed assistance to the OFW, including hiring of local lawyer to pursue her case against the culprit,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante’s regional coordinator, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Monterona urged the embassy in Kuwait to act immediately and ensure there would be no cover-up in the case. “We want to see the culprit jailed and pay for his heinous crime,” he said, adding he has sent a communication to the Philippine labor attaché David Des Dicang and requesting for an update and status of the OFW as requested by her family back home.
He said Migrante has monitored at least 3 cases of physical and sexual abuse and 6 more cases of “mysterious” deaths involving also OFWs in Kuwait last year. He said Kuwait is one of the most notorious destinations of Filipino household service workers abroad because of abuses and other human rights violations.
But despite these reports, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration still certified that Kuwait is a safe destination for OFWs, particularly household service workers.
“We are surprised why the DFA and DoLE-POEA certified Kuwait as safe destination for OFWs. So, for the nth time, we ask again where is the protection by our government to the OFWs, especially household service workers in the Middle East, as promised by President Benigno Aquino,?” Monterona asked.
There was no immediate statement either from the Philippine Embassy officials or Manila about the progress of the case.
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