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Sondos Alqattan has blocked her social media accounts because of her comments about Filipino maids. |
A NEW LAW, giving Filipino migrants in Kuwait a day off and requiring them to keep their passports in their own possession, angered a Kuwaiti Instagram star that she unleashed an post criticizing the law on her beauty vlog.
"The new laws that have been passed are like a pathetic film," said makeup artist Sondos Alqattan in a viral video last week.
"For her to take a day off every week, that's four days a month. Those are the days that she'll be out. And we don't know what she'll be doing on those days, with her passport on her," said Alqattan, who has 2.3 million followers on Instagram blog in which she gives beauty tips.
Along with a mandatory weekly day off, recent reforms in Kuwaiti regulations for Filipino domestic workers also require that workers keep their own passports with them. Before the changes, employers could confiscate the passports of domestic help.
"How can you have a 'servant' at home who keeps their own passport with them?" asked Alqattan.
"For her to take a day off every week, that's four days a month. Those are the days that she'll be out. And we don't know what she'll be doing on those days, with her passport on her," said Alqattan, who has 2.3 million followers on Instagram blog in which she gives beauty tips.
Along with a mandatory weekly day off, recent reforms in Kuwaiti regulations for Filipino domestic workers also require that workers keep their own passports with them. Before the changes, employers could confiscate the passports of domestic help.
"How can you have a 'servant' at home who keeps their own passport with them?" asked Alqattan.
Her ugly comments come after a months-long diplomatic row, between Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Kuwait, over the treatment of domestic workers.
The controversy began in February when a murdered Filipina maid, Joanna Demafelis, 29, was found in her employer's freezer in Kuwait City. Duterte then spoke out about the "inhuman" treatment of migrant workers and banned workers from working in Kuwait. As part of the Filipino diaspora, Filipinos have found employment in Kuwait and other Middle East countries.
Overseas Filipino workers often send money back to the Philippines. Their remittances form a major portion of the Philippine economy.
In recent years, the oil rich nations of the Middle East is a popular destination for overseas Filipinos where they can find work that offer higher pay than what they can earn in the Philippines. In Kuwait, many of 250,000 imported Filipino workers are employed as domestic workers and construction workers.
The ban was lifted after the two countries worked out an agreement for safety guarantees for Filipinos employed in Kuwait. The very agreements that prompted the outburst from the self-anointed beauty expert.
Not surprisingly, Alqattan's heartless and self-centered views were lambasted online with some of her critics calling for a boycott of beauty products associated by her.
In the Philippines, Migrante and SANDIGAN (Samahan ng mga DH sa Gitnang Silangang), which advocate on behalf of overseas workers, vehemently condemned Alqattan's comments and asked for an apology.
"By projecting herself as a slave-owner, Sondos exhibits intoxication in her overinflated ego and false sense of superiority," the groups said in a statement.
"There is no doubt that maltreatment of Filipinos in Kuwait and in many countries persist," the statement continued. "What is even more outrageous is that the Duterte regime continues to act as a pimp who willingly furnishes foreign countries with cheap and docile workers from the Philippines to serve as cash cows for his pro-elite TRAIN and Build, Build, Build lunacy.
"An apology from Sondos will surely give respite to our offended netizens but what OFWs ultimately long for is the total elimination of the roots of forced migration. As long as the Duterte regime stubbornly refuses to impose a national minimum wage, end contractualization, pursue national industrialization and institute genuine agrarian reform in the Philippines, there will be more cases like that of Demafelis and we shall hear more grim stories in the future about OFWs being at the receiving end of insults and inhumane treatment overseas from cynics like Sondos Alqattan."
"By projecting herself as a slave-owner, Sondos exhibits intoxication in her overinflated ego and false sense of superiority," the groups said in a statement.
"There is no doubt that maltreatment of Filipinos in Kuwait and in many countries persist," the statement continued. "What is even more outrageous is that the Duterte regime continues to act as a pimp who willingly furnishes foreign countries with cheap and docile workers from the Philippines to serve as cash cows for his pro-elite TRAIN and Build, Build, Build lunacy.
"An apology from Sondos will surely give respite to our offended netizens but what OFWs ultimately long for is the total elimination of the roots of forced migration. As long as the Duterte regime stubbornly refuses to impose a national minimum wage, end contractualization, pursue national industrialization and institute genuine agrarian reform in the Philippines, there will be more cases like that of Demafelis and we shall hear more grim stories in the future about OFWs being at the receiving end of insults and inhumane treatment overseas from cynics like Sondos Alqattan."
There has been no apology from Alqattan and her social media accounts have been blocked since her comments have gone viral.
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