Relatives and friends of Jullebee Ranara continue to demand justice for her murder. Ranara, a domestic worker, was found dead in a Kuwait desert on January 22. It was believed that she was raped before her killing.

“We demand due process and immediate resolution of the murder of Ranara, and appropriate indemnification of her surviving family,” declared MIGRANTE (global alliance of grassroots migrants organizations of overseas Filipinos and their families). “Simultaneously, officials and personnel of the government of the Philippines in Kuwait should also be investigated for their apparent negligence of OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers) of the said country.”

Based on reports in Kuwait, the son of her employer raped Ranara before she was killed. Her body was burned and thrown in the desert. Autopsy results show her skull was crushed.

According to MIGRANTE, the semi-slave situation of hundreds of domestic workers in Kuwait is widespread. “In the past more than six years, the brutal killings of our compatriots has not stopped,” according to the group.  “There is no change in their situation that is why the murder of Ranara ensued after the killing of domestic workers Joanna Demafelis, Jeanelyn Villavende and many more.”

Joanna Demafelis’ body was found in February 2018 inside a freezer with apparent signs of torture, in an apartment that had apparently been abandoned for at least a year. In 2019 based on an autopsy conducted, Jeanelyn Villavende was also raped and brutally beaten to death. On May 14, 2019 Constancia Lago Dayag died at the hands of her employer – black and blue and with a “cucumber” inside her private part.

At present, there are 400 abused Filipino migrants who can’t go home and are detained in facilities of the Philippine government in Kuwait.

MIGRANTE revealed that the Philippine State allows Filipinos to submit to the “kafala”system in Kuwait, where domestic workers are forced to work like slaves because they are tied to their “sponsor” or employer in their legal status and residence. They are prohibited from transferring work or leaving without the permission of the employer. Whoever violates this will be arrested or imprisoned.

The state’s priority is to squeeze maximum gains from remittances, according to the group. “The policy of deployment is deregulated, integrated in the service policy of the government is that domestic workers should suffer their condition,” it added.

Worse, it pressures migrants to compromise even with abusive employers. “Instead of helping, the Philippine state passes on the responsibility of service to migrants to the migrants themselves or to the agencies that deployed them,” MIGRANTE concluded.