77 distressed OFWs repatriated from Kuwait: DOLE

In a news release, Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa said the Filipinos who are staying at the government’s half-way home in the host country arrived in the country on Sunday (Nov. 29) via Kuwait Airways. (Pexels photo)

MANILA – A total of 77 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) including a rape victim who won her case against her assailant have been repatriated from Kuwait over the weekend, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported on Tuesday.

In a news release, Labor Attaché Nasser Mustafa said the Filipinos who are staying at the government’s half-way home in the host country arrived in the country on Sunday (Nov. 29) via Kuwait Airways.

At the same time, he reported that the OFW known as ‘Minerva’ has reunited with her family in Polomolok, South Cotabato after winning her case against a Kuwaiti policeman who raped her eight years ago.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Official (POLO) official added that the OFW is the longest staying distressed worker at the Migrant Workers and Other Filipino Resource Center while awaiting the outcome of her complaint.

Mustafa said Torijano was deployed to Kuwait by Zontar Manpower Services Inc. as domestic worker in September 2006 but was later on transferred to work in a dress shop located in Farwaniya.

While her residence visa was still for renewal by her employer, she was caught by a Kuwaiti policeman in September 2012.

Instead of bringing her to the police station, she was driven to a dark desert in South Surra where she was raped inside the police patrol car and was stabbed on the neck and back.

Torijano managed to crawl by the roadside where she was found by a passing car and was brought to Mubarak Hospital.

In June 2014, the policeman was sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance.

The sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment by the Court of Appeals upon the appeal of the policeman’s legal counsel.

Torijano was awarded last week the civil damages amounting to PHP3 million through the representative of the Philippine Embassy and Kuwaiti human rights lawyer Sheika Fawzia Salem Al-Sabah.

For his part, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III lauded the efforts of the POLO and the Philippine embassy in Kuwait for successfully winning the case for the OFW and bringing her home.