Cambodia Rapped for Poor Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Cambodia remains a Tier 2 country, putting it in a category above China, which is on a “watch list,” and Burma, which is a major source of trafficking. Other Tier 2 countries in Asia include Indonesia, Laos and Singapore.

Friday, 01 July 2011

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. However, it is making significant efforts to do so.”

Cambodia remains both a source and destination for trafficked persons, especially for the sex trade, fishing industry and increasingly labor export to Malaysia, an annual US report says.

“Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” according to the US State Department, which issued its annual human trafficking report this week. “However, it is making significant efforts to do so.”

The country remains a Tier 2 country, putting it in a category above China, which is on a “watch list,” and Burma, which is a major source of trafficking. Other Tier 2 countries in Asia include Indonesia, Laos and Singapore. “Endemic” corruption remains a major problem to curb trafficking, the report said.

“Cambodian men, women, and children migrate to Thailand, Malaysia, and other countries for work, and many are subsequently subjected to sex trafficking or forced to labor in the Thai fishing and seafood processing industry, on agricultural plantations, in factories, in domestic work, or for begging and street selling,” the State Department found.

It also noted the rising trend of Cambodian workers who travel to Malaysia to work as domestic servants. In 2010, the report said, labor recruiting agencies sent 16,395 workers to Malaysia, compared to a total 2,654 in 2008. Of those in 2010, nearly 12,000 were women sent as domestic workers.

“Cambodian migrants become victims of labor trafficking when they pursue what they believe to be legitimate employment opportunities abroad, but are then forced or coerced to work through debt bondage,” the report said.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the government welcomed the report and was seeking to be “No. 1 in fighting human trafficking.”

“But this is far away,” he said. “We must try to move forward. This report will contribute to our road map.”

Samneang Seila, country director for the French-based Action for the Children, said the report was an accurate reflection of Cambodia’s trafficking problems.

“The protection of victims is still limited and law enforcement is not strong yet,” he said. “In particular, punishment remains low, so that offenders can continue the offenses in Cambodia. If the protection of victims is weak, I believe that children still face the danger of human trafficking or sex exploitation.”

The State Department noted an increase in prosecution of trafficking cases, but it said there had been no labor trafficking convictions.

“Prosecutors sometimes failed to charge trafficking offenders using the most appropriate articles of the 2008 law,” the report said. “In some cases, Cambodian police were reportedly unwilling to pursue investigations of several suspected trafficking establishments during the year because the establishments were thought to be owned by or affiliated with high-ranking officials. Information leaks by law enforcement authorities to traffickers were reported to significantly harm efforts to enforce anti-trafficking laws.”

Despite the passage of an anti-corruption law in April 2010, the State Department said, “endemic corruption at all levels continues to create an enabling environment for trafficking, and in some cases, actively helped facilitate trafficking. Police and judicial officials continue to be both directly and indirectly involved in trafficking.”

The report noted that the government had not improved its efforts to protect victims of trafficking, and had done “incomplete” work to prevent trafficking in 2010.

Soeung Mariyan, head of legal project for Afesip, which helps prevent trafficking and rehabilitates victims, said anti-trafficking work has been hurt by law enforcement officials being “inactive and involved in corruption.”

The courts also have not played a strong role in preventing cases of trafficking, including in labor export, she said.

“We’ve seen that the court never charges a company involved in human trafficking, particularly the export of workers,” she said. “We’ve seen that some labor recruitment companies unfairly fulfill their jobs.”

In a case she is currently reviewing at court, a victim said she signed up with a recruiting company without her parents’ permission. She was locked in a room at the company without enough food or water, “a crime of detention.”

The court was unable to convict the heads of the company, but instead charged a middleman for a related crime, she said.

“We can’t completely blame the prosecutor, but we must also put the mistake on the investigating judge who was careless in his work,” she said. “The investigating judge didn’t even call the company to clarify the allegation.”

Am Sam Ath, lead investigator for the rights group Licadho, said the report could serve as a “compass” for Cambodia’s leadership.