Kuwait’s Claimed Impunity for Assault / Death of Migrants



Kuwait's Misogyny is uncovered

Impunity is only Kuwait’s perception out of pure arrogance. Kuwait government officials continue to exacerbate what may turn out to be a serious crime against humanity (if all the covers come off) by assailing the safety of young Filipino women house-workers who had a reasonable expectation of safety from gender-based violence and human slavery abuse.

–by Melissa Hemingway, staff writer Feminine-Perspective.org

Ethiopia and India Take Note:


That’s what it is called when a migrant maid
employed in a wealthy Kuwaiti’s home complains that she is not allowed a phone; not allowed to visit her embassy; not getting enough sleep; has her due pay for work and time accomplished withheld; and has been compelled by force to accept beatings and sexual harassment, even rape.

Kuwait has endangered the Philippines’ labour export and pushed a legitimate worker migration domestic product  into a form of human trafficking and apparently the Philippines has caught on and is saying “No.” to that phenomenon. There is no excusing what Kuwait has done and tries to perpetuate.

Kuwait is endorsing the rape, beatings and murder of Filipino maids when it arrests and detains Philippines embassy workers assigned to a “rescue” task of a Philippines’ citizen when she runs out the door of her abusive employer seeking help from her country’s government.

Following the death of Joanna Demafelis the Philippines ambassador in Kuwait City could not sit back and ignore the complaints of countrymen crying for help. Apparently the arrogance of the excessively rich Kuwaiti government officials has exceeded their concern for young women from the Philippines begging to be rescued from the violence of what they thought was fair employment but what turned out to be violent slavery. Kuwait is arresting people like this one who would dare help a woman in dire distress. The RINJ Foundation Women get the message loud and clear. Kuwait sees young Filipino women as slaves who have no recourse for sexual violence, beatings and murder.

Kuwait Not Only Doesn’t Have The Colour of Right, it has opened a can of stinky worms it will not contain.

The RINJ Foundation Women have received a deluge of complaints from female workers and former household workers in Kuwait. They are/were maids, cooks, nannies (child care givers) and household personal assistants.

Kuwait already has a human slavery crime issue. Perhaps the master-slave relationship between Kuwaitis and the women of developing nations is enhanced by Kuwaitis being the richest per capita  group of people  (about 3 million) on planet Earth.

The Details of Inhumanity are mostly Swept Under Rugs but what shows is Horrific.

It is certainly human slavery when women are forced into sexual subservience or are being compelled to tolerate violent abuse including beatings and torture in order to get their pay. The Kuwaiti government by its act of attacking Philippines embassy workers who would otherwise give a distressed woman a ride to a women’s shelter, completes the definition with forcible confinement attributes.

Not all Kuwaiti employers are this way. But for decades the problem has been persistent and governments from India, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and the Philippines have raised complaints about severe abuse of both individuals and of the concept of migrant workers.

Something like 200 Filipino workers die in Kuwait each year.

Many women just go missing.

Suicides are being constantly reported.

Some women have posted heart-wrenching videos of their beaten bloody selves on social media begging their families to get them out.

The Murder of a Missing Filipino Young Woman Pulled the cover off a Human Rights Mess

Thousands of Filipino women went home from Kuwait since February when the body of missing Filipino worker Joanna Demafelis was randomly found in a freezer at an empty apartment in Kuwait City.

Last Sunday the President of the Philippines asked all Filipinos to return home from Kuwait and President Duterte also stated clearly that a ban would remain in place against further assignments of workers to Kuwait.

Kuwait has responded by saying that it will engage Ethiopians in place of the Filipino women.

Perhaps the government of Ethiopia which has an unglamorous human rights record and reputation, should think twice and protect its citizens.

Joanna Demafelis Case is what happens when there is a collapse of the Rule of Law

We will never know what happened to Joanna Demafelis. The accused never entered the court; never gave their side of the story; and only various conflicting hearsay testimonies found their way to precious Joanna’s family.

Two people who don’t live in Kuwait have been tried and convicted in absentia then sentenced to death for the murder of Joanna. There is no transparency to this type of “justice”. There is no justice. Kuwait will sweep this under a rug by killing the two one-time occupants of the apartment where Joanna was found last February in a deep-freezer.

The Kuwait “Problem” That Causes Suicides and Murder of Philippines’ Young Women Needs Study. Perhaps a Collaborative UN Crisis-Conference is Immediately Needed.

  • With the unspeakable horrors continuing against women in Syria; and subculture cults around the world seeking to slaughter women in Daesh-like terrorist attacks, women cannot excuse the continued misogyny of Kuwait.
  • Kuwait needs to immediately apologize to the women of the world;
  • Release and quash charges against the good-intentioned Filipino embassy workers who acted as rescuers; and
  • Submit to a systemic evaluation of its migrant worker programme.

Above all:

 The RINJ Foundation Women would like to see this systemic problem solved and be able to support the Kuwaiti government fulfill its determined will to have all the benefits of a completely gender-equal Kuwaiti society.