BEIRUT: The employers of a Filipino maid found dead in a freezer in Kuwait were both arrested in the Syrian capital Damascus, a Lebanese judicial official said on Saturday.
Syrian authorities surrendered Nader Essam Assaf to Beirut on Friday because of his Lebanese citizenship but his Syrian wife Mona remains in custody in Damascus, the official said.
The murder of Joanna Demafelis sparked outrage in the Philippines and prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to impose a departure ban for Filipinos planning to work in Kuwait.
The 29-year-old’s body, which allegedly showed signs of torture, was found earlier this month inside a freezer in the abandoned apartment unit of the detained couple.
The couple have been the subject of an Interpol manhunt since Demafelis’s body was found more than a year after her family reported her missing.
“The couple were arrested in Damascus. They were the subject of an Interpol red notice and the Syrian authorities handed the husband over to Lebanese custody on Friday morning,” the official said.
“Syria kept custody of the wife because she is a Syrian national,” he added.
“Lebanon has asked Kuwait to pass on the husband’s police record.”
The official said that after leaving Kuwait, the couple had made a very brief stopover in Lebanon before traveling on to neighboring Syria.
Duterte has vowed to bring justice to Demafelis’s family, lashing out at the Gulf state and alleging Arab employers routinely rape Filipino workers, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.
Kuwait has said it is investigating reported deaths and abuses, and insisted there were only a small number considering that there are more than 250,000 Filipinos working in the emirate.
Duterte this week sent a team of labor officials to Kuwait to seek greater protection for migrant workers
Both suspects in Kuwait murder of Filipino held: Lebanon
Both suspects in Kuwait murder of Filipino held: Lebanon
As Europe gets tough on migrants, Crete island sees spike in illegal crossings
- Eastern Libya has become a key launch point for smugglers, undercutting years of EU efforts to curb departures and making Crete a new pressure point
TYMPAKI, Greece: A Heron 2 drone whirs off the tarmac on a new surveillance mission. The aircraft’s sensors scan for boats along the 350-km stretch of sea between Libya and the Greek island of Crete and can detect activity hidden below deck.
Crete, Greece’s largest island, saw a threefold increase in irregular migration last year, becoming the country’s busiest point of entry with about 20,000 arrivals, even as overall irregular migration to Europe fell by 26 percent in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to data from Frontex, the EU’s border agency.
SPEEDREAD
One of Europe’s deadliest migration corridors, where unclaimed bodies often wash up on shore, the passage to Crete is fueled by wars and instability across Africa and is growing busier even as pressure eases on other Mediterranean routes.
As the EU readies tougher measures to combat illegal migration, Frontex says it will focus resources on Crete in an attempt to end the surge in arrivals.
Eastern Libya has become a key launch point for smugglers, undercutting years of EU efforts to curb departures and making Crete a new pressure point.
Many boats leaving Libya are overcrowded and barely seaworthy, attempting a long, exposed journey across the Libyan Sea, leading to tragedies such as a sunken fishing trawler that killed at least 700 in 2023.
Greek authorities recently rescued 20 migrants and recovered four bodies from a vessel in distress south of Crete. Dozens of others are believed missing.
Each rescue underscores the same brutal reality: The crossing is a gamble with lives.
The route to Crete is significantly longer and more perilous than the short trip from Turkiye to nearby Greek islands. It requires larger vessels capable of navigating the open sea for days and a different operational response from Frontex, including bigger patrol boats and expanded aerial surveillance.
