Demafelis Case Study and case and study PDF

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CASE STUDY JOANNA D. DEMAFELIS- MURDERED VICTIM

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This case study will focus on a Filipina maid who was discovered dead in a freezer in Kuwait. She is Joanna Demafelis, 29 years old, found frozen in her employer’s apartment after being reported missing for more than a year. The revelation that an OFW had died in Kuwait and had been kept frozen for nearly two years startled and grieved the whole Philippines in February 2018. The body of the domestic worker, Joanna Demafelis, was discovered in an apartments’ freezer and was identified as such. According to the news report, Joanna worked for a Lebanese man and a Syrian lady who vanished in 2016 after a warrant of arrest was issued for them. These people are thought to be Joanna's second employer. They were captured in Syria after fleeing Kuwait following the finding of Joanna’s dead body in their former apartment. This made the people of the Philippines mad and questioned the values of the people in Kuwait. Duterte was furious and said so many awful things to the country. Under an arrangement with Duterte's government, airlines began flying more than 10,000 Filipino employees home from Kuwait for free. According to Agency France-Press, the prohibition and consequent departure of thousands of Filipino workers threatened to leave Kuwait with a "shortfall" in domestic workers. The deployment limits on OFWs to Kuwait show that the Duterte administration is serious about the murders of two Filipino domestic employees and other allegations of abuse

against Filipino workers. It sends a message to Kuwait's government, requesting more protections for Filipino labor. However, the limitations do not address worker maltreatment and instead allow the prospect of Filipino laborers entering Kuwait through unregulated and dangerous avenues.

BACKGROUND Joanna D. Demafelis, 29 years old from Sara, Ilo-Ilo is an Overseas Filipino Worker in Kuwait. At the age of 26 she worked as a housekeeper for her relatives, she has the money to send to her parents and had the freedom to roam around the country’s shopping mall. But, when the powerful typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines in 2013 her plans were shattered. The Family of Demafelis was one of the thousands who found themselves homeless as a result of the typhoon and because of the said tragedy, Joanna made a decision to ask for her help from her aunt, Agnes Tuballes if she could apply as an OFW to support ensure a decent future for her family. In May 2014, 5 months later after speaking to her aunt, Joanna Ultimately boarded a plane to Kuwait. She was delighted and grabbed the recruiter’s offer to connect her to a sponsor in Kuwait so she could work as a domestic helper there. According to the news source, she might earn ten times as much per month in the oil-rich Persian Gulf country than she could in the Philippines. Joanna worked as a household helper to Mouna Ali Hassoun and Nader Essam Assaf in Al Shaab District in Kuwait. But unfortunately, Joanna Demafelis went missing in September 2016 and her body was found in 2018. Demafelis’ body was discovered in the freezer of an abandoned apartment belonging to a couple who had hired her in February by Kuwaiti officials. There was evidence that the woman had been tortured and strangled, according to local media. The authorities believe she was murdered more than a year ago. Before she died, the 29-year-old Filipina migrant worker had shattered ribs and internal hemorrhaging. Following the discovery of their maid’s body, Demafelis’ employers, Nader Essam Assaf and his wife, Mona Hassoun, reportedly departed Kuwait, prompting an Interpol manhunt. Later, in Syria, they were apprehended. According to Al Jazeera, Assaf, a Lebanese national, was transferred to Beirut, while Hassoun was imprisoned in Damascus. According to Associated Press, a Kuwaiti court condemned Assaf and Hassoun to death by hanging on Sunday after a month he got arrested, confessed to killing Demafelis, and was charged with murder. Joanna Demafelis was brought back to the Philippines in a wooden crate on February 12, 2018, by bereaved family members who couldn’t believe she had been dead for nearly two years, her body stashed in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait.

The assassination of Demafelis sparked indignation in the Philippines, which sends over 2 million residents abroad to work. It also strained ties between the Philippines and Kuwait, with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte prohibiting Filipinos from working in the Persian Gulf country. The Department of Foreign Affairs stated it will continue to assist the family with legal matters until justice is served.

CASE EVALUATION The Philippines Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued a temporary ban on Filipinos wishing to travel to Kuwait for employment on January 19, 2018, pending the completion of an inquiry into seven fatalities of domestic workers in the nation. The Philippines issued a "complete ban" on new employees traveling to Kuwait on February 12. The kafala, or sponsorship, system in Kuwait ties migrant domestic workers' visas to their employers, making it illegal for them to leave or change occupations without their employers' permission. Previous prohibitions imposed by the Philippines, as well as comparable bans imposed by other countries of origin, had little effect on ending abuses in Kuwait or other Middle Eastern countries. Instead, desperate workers continue to migrate, but through dangerous and uncontrolled routes. These can expose individuals to abuse and trafficking while also making it more difficult to remedy violations. In a population of 4 million, Kuwait has about 660,000 migrant domestic workers. According to Philippine estimates, there are about 250,000 Filipinos in Kuwait, the majority of whom are domestic workers. Many employees send money home to support their families by feeding, educating, and housing them. Human Rights Watch has recorded numerous cases of migrant domestic workers being exploited in Kuwait and other Middle Eastern nations. Domestic workers' passports are confiscated, they are forced to work excessively long hours without rest or a weekly day off, they are confined to their employers' houses, they are verbally abused, and in some cases, they are physically and sexually assaulted. Suicides and deaths are reported every year in Kuwait. Workers who flee their employment can be arrested for "absconding," fined, imprisoned for up to six months, deported, and forbidden from returning for at least six years under Kuwait's kafala system. Workers can be forced to stay with abusive employers under the kafala system, and those who try to flee can be punished. Workers who seek legal action are frequently left without a source of income since they are unable to work for another business without the approval of their previous employer. Many people flee the nation before receiving justice.

The Philippines and Kuwait should reach an agreement on a bilateral agreement that includes a standard contract, a system for rescuing distressed workers and investigating worker abuses and deaths, a requirement to notify the Philippines of any national arrested, and a requirement for all employers who apply for work and residency permits for domestic workers to apply for authorization from the Philippines embassy, which can then register workers and provide protection. The Philippines should also seek an agreement to continue criminal or civil cases against employers or agencies on behalf of workers who want to return home and have given embassy officials a power of attorney. The Philippines government should involve domestic workers, local nongovernmental organizations, and trade unions on the draft agreement, and ensure that it includes monitoring procedures and public reporting on how the agreement is being implemented. When domestic workers arrive, the Philippines embassy should require employers to register them, and the embassy should check in with employees about their working circumstances on a regular basis and before they leave. The Philippines should also strengthen oversight and monitoring of recruitment firms to ensure that they do not deceive workers or charge them recruitment costs or fees, and that returning workers may submit complaints against companies quickly. Many workers claim that the existing process is excessively time consuming and that they are dropping claims in order to leave the Philippines and seek new employment.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS There has been an increase in the number of incidents of abuse and deaths among overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait. In the aftermath of the death of Joanna Demafelis, whose body was discovered in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait. The government should improve its economic policies to improve the country's employment rate, which is one of the variables that influence a Filipino's decision to work overseas. In the last two years, there have been 185 deaths reported. There were 82 fatalities documented in 2016, while 103 deaths were recorded in 2017 due to physical abuse. The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait recorded 6000 cases of abuse in 2017, including sexual assault and rape. Because of the worrying situations involving some OFWs, a separate department for overseas Filipinos is needed, to bring together relevant government agencies dealing with OFWs under one umbrella. If approved into law, it will help to alleviate the problems and inconveniences faced by Filipinos living abroad, as well as provide better security for them by promoting streamlined cooperation among various officials and offices headquartered abroad through the one-country team concept. The number of OFWs continues to climb regardless of the abuses. Despite the substantial contributions of our OFWs throughout the years, there seems to be no single government entity high enough to cater to their requirements on a departmental level. It is therefore

past time for the government to restructure its resources to respond to the demands of our OFWs. To empower the government to be more attentive to the needs of the OFW sector as a whole, Congress must establish a government body that will acknowledge all of their problems, including, but not limited to, recruiting, deployment, repatriation, reintegration, and re-employment. We must raise their welfare protection to a departmental level so that all agencies may work together to deliver a meaningful and insightful response to their concerns.

CONCLUSION Around the world, workers who work in isolation, where nobody is watching, are particularly vulnerable to violence and harassment at work. Domestic workers are just such workers. Protections for domestic workers are still weaker in Kuwait’s labor law. OFWs remain vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. By this, a diplomatic crisis began between the countries of Kuwait and the Philippines in early 2018 over concerns of the latter over the situation of Filipino migrant workers in the gulf country. The diplomatic row was a result of the Joanna Demafelis case. In response to this, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the suspension of the deployment of Filipino migrant workers to Kuwait. The move was criticized by the Kuwaiti government but both the Philippines and Kuwait went on to cooperate regarding the Demafelis murder case leading to the conviction of Demafelis' killers in absentia. The justice for Joana Demafelis and her bereaved family was served after her employers have been sentenced to death in absentia for killing her.

IMPLEMENTATION Kuwait decides to put a strategy into action for Joanna Demafelis by improving economic policies to improve the country's employment rate. The Philippine Embassy in Kuwait approves giving better security to those Filipinos living abroad to minimize the cases of deaths, fatalities, physical abuse, sexual assault, and rape. They also have different departments due to their worrying situations so that they are together in government agencies. Government agencies will help them to ask for help if needed and alleviate some problems that are experiencing or facing some Filipinos living abroad.

The government put the strategy into action by acknowledging and being attentive regarding the situation of OFWs.

REFERENCES https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/03/how -a-maid-found-dead-in-a-freezer-set-off-a-diplomatic-clash-between-thephilippines-and-kuwait/ https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/death-homecoming-joannademafelis-ofw-kuwait https://globalnation.inquirer.net/179750/employer-of-slain-ofw-joannademafelis-found-guilty-in-syria https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/9/9/Joanna-Demafelis-Kuwaitguilty.html https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/21/kuwait/philippines-protectfilipino-migrant-workers

PREPARED BY: HANNAH MARIE M. ALIÑO MYRA MIRAFLORES RHOE JANE L. RODRIGUEZA AMOR NAPAY MA ANGELICA N. NERIC...