Filipina friend drifting into slavery in Kuwait City

Hello James,

If your friend fears that she's being taken advantage of and risks being made a virtual slave she should contact the Philippines Embassy in Kuwait.

http://www.philembassykuwait.gov.kw/

There is a list of national phone numbers and a HOTLINE shown on the site.

If for some reason your friend cannot contact the Embassy herself, being prevented from making phone calls, can't leave the residence unaccompanied, etc., then you should contact the Philippines Embassy or Consulate nearest you, pass along to them all of the details that you possibly can, such as her full name, residential address in Kuwait, date of entry into the country, nature of the problems, etc., and ask them to contact their Embassy in Kuwait to intervene on her behalf.

If, for example, her employer is holding her passport the Embassy in Kuwait can arrange for an emergency passport to be issued for her, find her a safe place to stay and advise her regarding repatriation.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

She says she doesn't want to go to the Embassy, because she would just be stuck there in crowded living conditions, and has no money to get a flight back to the Philippines.

The sad truth is that no one can help her except the embassy as far as i know. We have seen this happen time and time again. As she said, yes the conditions in the embassy are crowded but at least she would be protected there.

Sounds to me like your friend wants somebody to wave a magic wand and make all of her problems go away (probably in every aspect of her life).

She's not going to get out of her present situation unless she's willing to help herself. If she won't go to the Embassy then she's going to be stuck exactly where she is.

When things get so bad that she just can't take it any longer it is quite likely that it will be too late.

Tell your friend to stop being foolish, stop making excuses and go to the Embassy. If she still refuses to do so then tell her that you don't want to know anymore about the problem because you can't do anything to help her. ONLY THE EMBASSY CAN.

Be careful, sounds like she's setting you up to beg you to foot the bill for her ticket. I really wouldn't do that if I were you.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

If she's so unconcerned for her safety given the situation that she's not willing to take the necessary (and common sense) steps to resolve it, then it can't be as bad as she's letting on to you. You shouldn't be worried about it either in that case.

Is there any kind of Philippine support group there she can go to for advice? Or someone specific in the embassy I can tell her to go to? I think as a first step, she really needs to understand her options better and not be so isolated.

She can only get the advice she needs from her embassy, they will help her with ministry procedures etc. If she thinks she's "too good" to go the embassy why don't you as her "friend" pony up the money for a ticket back home instead of blowing smoke in these chat rooms.

unfortuanitly this is happening often in kuwait,
and as mentioned above, the only legal action she can take or do, is run to the embassy,
any other legal or not legal action with backfire at her...

another tricky action,is her stop working, demanding a return to her work office or so.
the most the eqama owner or to sell the eqama (for a small profit) and she get a new home.  however, doesnt mean her luck will change.

firstly; im guessing she does not have hold of her passport, meaning approaching the embassy is her ONLY option. there is a volunteer group called Operation HOPE who either raise money for such individuals or assist the ones staying at the embassy by giving them some form of work to do - stitching, quilting etc. you would have to ask them and find out.

the sincere advice here is she HAS to go to the embassy, there are no two ways about it.

Operation Hope doesn't provide any legal information, the organization donates clothing and toiletries only.

i dont recall saying that they do

Just setting the record straight as you put OH and embassy in the same sentence.

the sentence pretty clearly states that they help the ones AT the embassy by having collections and donations for them

Hey is she still in kuwait I can help her I'm from the royal family I can easily take her back to philipines if she wants.