By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
21 November 2007
Police on the border seized 33 workers returning from Thailand recently and took $42,000 for their release, the rights group Adhoc said Wednesday.
Sum Chankea, an investigator for the group, said police in Bantey Meanchey province arrested a group of men and forced them to empty a bank account of Thai baht worth $42,000, after arresting them on allegations of illegal border crossing.
One of the detained said a group of workers had pooled their money into one account for fear of it being confiscated by police.
"This more than 1 million baht is the sum of money collected by 33 workers from Thailand who deposited it in one account," Sum Chankea said.
Police charged one man with illegally bringing Cambodian workers into Thailand, he said, but the money was never returned.
Bantey Meanchey's O'chrov District Police Chief Oeung Song You said the provincial police chief had ordered them now to return the money to the workers.
"We're not taking the money," he said.
Sum Chankea, an investigator for the group, said police in Bantey Meanchey province arrested a group of men and forced them to empty a bank account of Thai baht worth $42,000, after arresting them on allegations of illegal border crossing.
One of the detained said a group of workers had pooled their money into one account for fear of it being confiscated by police.
"This more than 1 million baht is the sum of money collected by 33 workers from Thailand who deposited it in one account," Sum Chankea said.
Police charged one man with illegally bringing Cambodian workers into Thailand, he said, but the money was never returned.
Bantey Meanchey's O'chrov District Police Chief Oeung Song You said the provincial police chief had ordered them now to return the money to the workers.
"We're not taking the money," he said.
3 comments:
Sad!
Those with power continue to abuse their authority.
The culture of impunity continue.
In Cambodia: power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely!
Well, we can only get what we paid for? I mean the police has always been corrupted because they are poor and moraless. And with too many westerner life style promotion around, this problem will be with us for a while. No stupid anti-corruption law is going to do shit to them. You put one of them in jail, you'll just open a new door for a new police to be corrupted; hence, problem not solved.
The real solution is to fill the country with jobs, and let the competition in the capitalist economy improve their life style. Once successfully, the law will be more effective because people will not trade in jail time for their feasible salary.
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