The Kuwaiti influencer who said Filipino ‘servants’ shouldn’t be allowed days off is being dumped by her sponsors.
Sondos Alqattan has been dropped by several giant cosmetic brands after causing a storm of controversy over her remarks about new laws to help protect Filipino domestic workers.
Three international brands, including Max Factor, have cut ties with Alqattan amid calls for a global boycott of the businesses linked to her, the Gulf News has reported.
Previously, the French perfume brand M Micallef and London-based Chelsea Beautique also fired the ‘beauty and fashion influencer’.
In an Instagram post today (Tuesday, July 24) Alqattan remained unrepentant. She told her 2.3 million followers: “Don’t judge a person without full understanding of the situation. Just because you don’t agree, doesn’t mean that you’re right!”
Alqattan was reacting to comments from netizens after she was shown in a video saying, “I don’t want a Filipino maid anymore”.
She said: “But how can you have a ‘servant’ in your house who gets to keep their passports with them? If they run away and went back to their country, who’ll refund me?”
Alqattan was reacting to a new law signed in May as part of an agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait to protect the estimated 260,000 Filipino workers in the Gulf state.
The new law effectively banned the practice of an employer holding their maid’s passport and required them to provide food, clothing, health insurance and one day off per week.
The legislation was passed after President Duterte imposed a partial ban on workers travelling to Kuwait after a Filipina maid was murdered and her body found in a freezer. The couple responsible have been sentenced to death.
The crisis deepened after Kuwaiti authorities in April expelled Manila’s ambassador over video footage of Philippine embassy staff helping workers escape employers accused of mistreatment.
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