‘I DON’T WANT A QUARREL WITH KUWAIT, BUT THEY MUST DO
SOMETHING’
Arab Times
1/19/18
MANILA, Philippines, Jan 18, (AP): Philippine President
Rodrigo Duterte threatened Thursday to impose a total ban on sending workers to
Kuwait because of sexual abuses that have forced some Filipino women to kill
themselves.
Duterte said he wanted Filipino officials to hold talks with
Kuwait and tell them the abuses are unacceptable and that the Philippines may
ban Filipinos from working there unless the abuses end.
“I do not want a quarrel with Kuwait. I respect their
leaders but they have to do something about this because many Filipinas will
commit suicide,” Duterte said in a speech at the launching of a Manila bank for
Filipinos abroad.
“We have lost about four Filipino women in the last few
months. It’s always in Kuwait,” Duterte said, without providing details.
Discussing the problem with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano
recently, Duterte said: “My advice is, we talk to them, state the truth and
just tell them that it’s not acceptable anymore. Either we impose a total ban
or we can have this corrected.”
More than 250,000 Filipinos work in the Arab nation. The Philippines
is a major labor exporter with about a tenth of more than 100 million Filipinos
working abroad. The earnings they send home have bolstered the Philippine
economy for decades. Workers endure the threat of abuses, including rape, in
some countries to be able to send money home and keep their children in school.
But with their parents working abroad, some children end up being sexually
abused or become drug addicts, Duterte said, explaining his anger over drug
dealers.
Thousands of mostly poor suspects have been killed in
Duterte’s brutal crackdown on illegal drugs since he took power in 2016,
alarming Western governments and human rights groups. Duterte has denied he
condones extrajudicial killings although he has openly threatened drug dealers
with death for years.
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Personally, I wouldn't want to be caught in this guy's cross hairs.
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