Millions of Filipinos currently work overseas. In Kuwait alone, there are over 200,000 Filipinos working. After it was revealed that the working conditions there were pretty harsh, however, reforms have been put into place to protect Filipino workers in the Gulf countries. In May 2018, Kuwait and the Philippines came to an agreement to give Filipino workers in the country one day off every week. They also no longer have to surrender their passports to their employers.
Apparently, this didn’t sit well with one particular Kuwaiti social media celebrity who publicly complained about the new rules on Filipino workers. In a video posted on Twitter, Sondos Alqattan complains about domestic workers, even referring to them as ‘servants’ at one point. She says, “Honestly, I disagree with this law. I don’t want a Filipino maid anymore. How can you have a ‘servant’ in your house who gets to keep their passport with them? If they ran away and went back home to their country, who would refund me? And what’s worse is they have one day off very week.”
You may watch the video here:
فيديو / فاشنيستا تصف بالعقود الجديدة لجلب العمالة المنزلية بـ«المصخرة»: كيف لها يوم اجازة في كل اسبوع!؟ pic.twitter.com/tIRfDQHVb5
— المجلس (@Almajlliss) July 14, 2018
Sondos Alqattan is a Kuwaiti social media celebrity and a makeup artist with over 2 million followers on Instagram. Ever since the release of the video, hundreds of people have been defending domestic workers, pointing out that they are humans and not machines, and that they need breaks, too.
