“It’s [unfair] to judge without giving her a right to defend herself,” the founder said when reached by Gulf News. She asked not to be identified.

“I’m with [giving maids] the time off, but the passport, no - unless the country makes it a law not to leave the country without a letter from the employer,” she said. “We pay money to get workers, around $4,000, and she might stay a week, and if she doesn’t like the situation, she leaves. Who will compensate me?”

Earlier this year, Kuwait and the Philippines signed a memorandum of agreement, ensuring that Filipino workers, often employed as maids or housekeepers, would be given greater protections.

This agreement effectively banned the practice of an employer holding their maid’s passport, whilst requiring that workers be provided food, clothing, health insurance, and one day off each week.

In February, the Philippines declared a total ban on expatriate workers moving to the Gulf state after the body of 29-year-old domestic worker Joanna Demafelis was discovered in a freezer in Kuwait.

Lebanese national Nader Essam Assaf, the man who employed Demafelis, later confessed to killing her, and was sentenced to death by a Kuwaiti court.

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