It was back in August 2016 when Vanessa Esguerra from Parañaque City, Philippines started working as domestic helper in Kuwait.
She is set to go home in August 2018 as domestic helper contracts end every 2 years but Vanessa is back in the Philippines several months too early, not because her contract ended ahead of time but because she’s dead.
Vanessa’s death is now under investigation because her employers claimed that she killed herself but her family and friends refused to accept this, especially because she had just reported getting sexually abused by her employer’s father.
Photo credit: GMA News / YouTube
The family was asked help from Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III who personally requested for investigations on the incident; he said the investigation will be completed in 15 days.
Due to the many cases of abuses against OFWs in Kuwait, the Philippines has placed a ban against the deployment of new hires to the country.
But Bello revealed that Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Philippines, Musaed Saleh Althwaikh, has already requested that the country lift the ban as it is affecting their citizens; however, the Labor Department denied the request.
According to the Labor Secretary, there had been countless incidents of abuse in Kuwait yet investigations often come out in favor of the employers and it would be ruled that there was no maltreatment involved. Sadly, a lot of OFWs have died violent deaths or supposedly committed suicide in Kuwait yet the truth behind their deaths are never fully known, just like Vanessa’s case.
Sadly, Vanessa is just one of the countless OFWs who got abused in Kuwait and went home in a casket. There were others who were ‘lucky’ enough that they managed to get out of the abusive employers before something really bad happened.
Watch this news report on the issue: