Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing, a celebrity in Kuwait has found out the hard way.
Sondos Alqatta, an Instagram star who boasts a huge online following — 2.3 million followers and counting — spoke out about new laws in the Middle East that allow Filipino workers one day off a week and which don’t allow their employers to seize their passports. The shocking part is — she spoke out against the new laws.
“How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them? What’s worse is they have one day off every week,” said Alqattan. The beauty blogger and makeup artist added, “If they run away and go back to their country, who will refund me? Honestly I disagree with this law. I don’t want a Filipino maid any more.”
The remarks have drawn widespread condemnation and the advocacy group Migrante International described the diatribe in a statement as the ranting of a “slave-owner” who “exhibits intoxication in her overinflated ego and false sense of superiority.” The group demanded an apology. Meanwhile, two major beauty brands have dumped her amid the backlash.
Her comments posted in an a second video online doubled down, and are especially appalling considering the new reforms came after months of controversy and even a temporary ban from the Philippines on the deployment of overseas foreign workers after a 29-year-old Filipino worker was found dead in a freezer in Kuwait, The Guardian reports. The Philippine president offered free flights home to the 10,000 workers who overstayed their visas, but in May the countries came to an agreement over labor rights. Around 660,000 people out of Kuwait’s population of four million are domestic migrant workers, according to The Guardian.
