
On July 4, 2019, 26-year-old Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende left her village on the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, and headed for Kuwait, where a job as a domestic worker awaited her. Five months later, on December 28, 2019, Jeanelyn Villavende arrived, or was dumped, already dead, showing signs of having been tortured, at Sabah Hospital. Her employers are under arrest. The Philippines expresses its outrage, and, yesterday, declared a partial ban on “deployment of workers” to Kuwait. Two years ago, reflecting on Saudi Arabia’s execution of domestic worker Tuti Tursilawati, we asked, “Why does the world not care about the young women of color who travel long distance and leave families and communities behind, precisely to keep the world, our world, functioning?” The redundancy and familiarity of Jeanelyn Villavende’s story suggests that was the wrong question. This repeated narrative of migration, abuse, torture, exploitation, death, return, 15 minutes of national “outrage”, followed by return to the same, this is the quality of our concern for young women of color in the contemporary global marketplace. As an Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon once put it, “We are like oil to our government”. After an oil spill here and there, it’s back to business as usual.
None of this is new. If anything, it’s a cliché by now. The neoliberal global economy was built on global cities that required 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week service, and so, among other industries, the household care work sector exploded. Urban areas of certain areas demanded more and more domestic workers, and certain nation-States, the Philippines most notably, turned themselves into mega-brokerage houses for mass migrations of domestic workers … like so much oil. The sending countries lauded the women as heroes of the nation and promised to protect them. But that protection never came. If it had, not only would Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende be alive today, she would never have had to leave in the first place.
Repeatedly, we have seen migrant and transnational domestic workers organizing themselves, demanding justice, making change. Filipina domestic worker Evangeline Banao Vallejos did so in Hong Kong, as did Indonesian domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, and as are Filipino domestic workers Baby Jane Allas, Milagros Tecson Comilang, and Desiree Rante Luis. Adelina Lisao is a mirror sister of Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende: 26 years old, Adelina Lisao left Indonesia to work in Malaysia, and returned home, visibly tortured, in a body bag. Why does the world not care about the young women of color who travel long distance and leave families and communities behind, precisely to keep the world, our world, functioning? We do. This is how we care. We speak of justice, for example “justice for Jeanelyn Villavende”, and then return to business as usual. No one cries forever over a little spilled oil.
In February 2018, the Philippines imposed a total deployment ban on Kuwait, which it rescinded in May 2018. In May 2019, the Philippines imposed a total deployment ban on Kuwait, which it rescinded soon after. Each one of these bans occurred in response to spectacular brutality and death visited upon Filipina domestic workers. Each time, Kuwait and the Philippines signed a new deal. Each time, women were told they were protected. This is why almost every headline involving Jeanelyn Padernal Villavende’s torture and murder says “another”: “PH condemns killing of yet another Filipina domestic worker in Kuwait”; “PH gov’t condemns death of another Filipino domestic worker in Kuwait”; “Another OFW killed in Kuwait”. Another just like the other just like the next … so many drops of oil.
Around the world, domestic workers, overwhelmingly women, are organizing. They know that neither justice nor dignity come in some afterlife. There is absolutely no point in intoning “justice for Jeanelyn Villavende” as if that would conjure her up. It’s time to remember Mother Mary Harris Jones’ exhortation to striking miners: “Your organization is not a praying institution. It’s a fighting institution. It’s an educational institution along industrial lines. Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”
(Photo Credit: Sun Star Manila)
Congress urged to look into another Pinay’s death in Kuwait https://journal.com.ph/news/nation/congress-urged-look-another-pinays-death-kuwait
Philippines imposes partial ban on sending domestic workers to Kuwait https://www.arabnews.com/node/1607636
POEA imposes partial ban on newly hired, returning domestic workers to Kuwait https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/01/03/poea-imposes-partial-ban-on-newly-hired-returning-domestic-workers-to-kuwait/
DOLE stops sending maids to Kuwait https://globalnation.inquirer.net/182852/dole-stops-sending-maids-to-kuwait
OFW sought help from agency months before she was killed by Kuwaiti employer http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/01/02/20/ofw-sought-help-from-agency-months-before-she-was-killed-by-kuwaiti-employer
BI starts deployment ban of newly-hired domestic workers to Kuwait https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1209876/bi-starts-implementing-deployment-ban-of-newly-hired-domestic-workers-to-kuwait
Remains of Filipina slain in Kuwait arrives home as relatives cry for justice http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/01/09/20/remains-of-filipina-slain-in-kuwait-arrives-home-as-relatives-cry-for-justice
Slain maid’s skull cracked, kin note as they cry for justice https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1211150/slain-maids-skull-cracked-kin-note-as-they-cry-for-justice
PH gov’t approves total deployment ban for Kuwait following domestic worker’s death https://coconuts.co/manila/news/ph-govt-approves-total-deployment-ban-for-kuwait-following-domestic-workers-death/
Justice for Jeanelyn https://opinion.inquirer.net/126700/justice-for-jeanelyn
Guevarra: NBI autopsy findings on Villavende to be sent to Kuwait https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/01/18/guevarra-nbi-autopsy-findings-on-villavende-to-be-sent-to-kuwait/
Filipino domestic helpers in limbo after fleeing cruelty in Middle East https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3046695/filipino-domestic-helpers-who-fled-cruel-saudi-arabian-employers
Kuwaiti employers of Filipino domestic worker ‘charged with murder’ https://www.arabianbusiness.com/culture-society/438812-kuwaiti-employers-of-filipino-domestic-worker-charged-with-murder
Father of Filipina expat murdered in Kuwait by her employers rejects ‘blood money’ https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200129-father-of-filipina-expat-murdered-in-kuwait-by-her-employers-rejects-blood-money/
PH lifts deployment ban to Kuwait http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/02/13/20/ph-lifts-deployment-ban-to-kuwait
Is the deployment ban of Filipino workers to Kuwait misconceived? https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/03/06/is-the-deployment-ban-of-filipino-workers-to-kuwait-misconceived/
Philippines Bans Deployment of Filipino Workers to Kuwait Due to Mistreatment- https://international.thenewslens.com/article/132226
Does a Ban on Philippines Workers Going to Kuwait Really Make Sense? https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/does-a-ban-on-philippines-workers-going-to-kuwait-really-make-sense/
Preventing abuses against Filipino migrant domestic workers https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2020/04/02/preventing-abuses-against-filipino-migrant-domestic-workers/
Countering Abuse Against Philippine Migrant Workers @Diplomat_APAC https://thediplomat.com/2020/04/countering-abuse-against-philippine-migrant-workers/
Kuwaiti employer sentenced to death for killing Filipina domestic worker http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/12/30/kuwaiti-employer-death-sentence-murder-jeanelyn-villavende.html
Kuwaiti boss sentenced to death for killing of Filipina domestic worker https://www.rappler.com/nation/kuwaiti-boss-sentenced-death-murder-jeanelyn-villavende
Kuwaiti woman sentenced to death for torturing, killing Pinay maid https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/30/20/kuwaiti-woman-sentenced-to-death-for-torturing-killing-pinay-maid
Manila welcomes Kuwait verdict in Filipino maid murder case https://www.arabnews.com/node/1785606
Kuwaiti employer to hang for Pinay maid’s slay https://globalnation.inquirer.net/192999/kuwaiti-employer-to-hang-for-pinay-maids-slay
Foreign secretary orders halt to blood money payment over Filipino maid slain in Kuwait https://www.arabnews.com/node/1798811