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| SRP MP Mu Sochua (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post) |
Cambodia's opposition MP says this is the first case filed and accepted officially in Malaysia.
December 7, 2011
Stephanie Sta Maria
Free Malaysia Today
Tenaganita has rescued 41 of them to date with 56% having suffered physical abuse, 26% sexually abused, 25% malnourished and 42% forced to work double jobs.
PETALING JAYA: Suhakam has accepted for the first time a complaint from Cambodia over the death of a ninth Cambodian domestic worker in Malaysia.
Pov Nich, 18, arrived in Malaysia on Aug 28. Two months later, her mother was informed by the recruitment agency in Phnom Penh of her daughter’s sudden death.
The agency claimed that Pov Nich collapsed after taking the wrong medicine and died following further complications at the hospital.
On Monday, prominent Cambodian opposition MP Mu Sochua (photo) wrote to Suhakam commissioner, Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah urging for investigations into the vague circumstances of Pov Nich’s death and employment.
Sochua yesterday received an email from Suhakam confirming receipt of her complaint and informing her that a file has been opened over the matter.
The email was signed by the human rights commission’s Principal Assistant Secretary of the Complaints and Inquiry Division, Ameer Iznayif Hamzah.
“The swift response from the commissioner is very encouraging,” Sochua said. “This is the first case filed and accepted officially and I will be filing similar complaints for all nine deaths of Cambodian domestic workers in Malaysia.”
In her letter to Sha’ani, she also implored for the retrieval and release of information on the reported deaths of Cambodian domestic workers in Malaysia.
“Despite these deaths being officially recognised by the Malaysian authorities, the names and details surrounding the circumstances of these deaths and the agencies involved remain shrouded in secrecy,” she stated.
Suhakam’s acceptance and response of Pov Nich’s case is a significant step forward in Sochua’s fight against the abuse of Cambodian domestic workers in Malaysia as her previous attempts to contact Malaysian authorities have largely been ignored.
Cambodian domestic workers streamed into Malaysia following a three-year freeze on recruitment of their Indonesian counterparts.
Of the 50,000 Cambodian domestic workers currently in Malaysia, 30,000 arrived this year alone.
Tenaganita has rescued 41 of them to date with 56% having suffered physical abuse, 26% sexually abused, 25% malnourished and 42% forced to work double jobs.
However following complaints of abuse, the Cambodian government banned sending their domestic workers to Malaysia in November.
2 comments:
This disgrace MP is really good in looking any event and expoit it for political gain, but when Khmer people were suffering by Thai troops attacking near the border last February and April, and recently flood, she went to ground. This is the kind of opportunist politician without ashame.
Unlike you, she is fighting for Khmer victims. Given her records, I doubt that she remains silent on issues affecting the poor and the helpless. Stop your whinning.
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