Maid’s mum tells tale of abuse

Wednesday, 04 January 2012
Sen David
The Phnom Penh Post

A mother who has been fighting since November to have her daughter brought home from Malaysia because she is allegedly being beaten and tortured by her employment agency will file a complaint with the Ministry of Interior tomorrow.

Chea Si Yan, 58, told the Post yesterday her daughter Sanh Makara, 31, whom recruitment agency Champa Manpower sent to Malaysia to work as a maid last March, had recently called her to say the company’s partner agency in Malaysia had beaten her because they were unhappy with her performance.

“Her last employer ordered her to cook a cake, but she did not understand – she is not good at English – so the employer was angry with her and sent her back to the agency,” Chea Si Yan said.

“The agency then beat her until she needed to be taken to hospital.”

Chea Si Yan said she also feared for the safety of her 30-year-old goddaughter Moa Chamroune, who was working in Malaysia with the same company and could not be contacted.

“I will come to Phnom Penh to file a complaint with anti-human trafficking police,” she said.

In late November, Chea Si Yan filed a complaint with ADHOC in Phnom Penh, calling for intervention to help her daughter, who she said was being fed sub-standard meals while being locked inside her employer’s house.

The mistreatment had worsened, Chea Si Yan said yesterday.

“First it was her employer mistreating her, now the agency is torturing her. They have been forcing her to stand still with a heavy box on the top of her head all day.

“She has spent almost one year in Malaysia, and it has been the worst time for her. I need my daughter to come home. I don’t care about her salary,” she said.

The family was paid US$200 and 250 kilograms of rice after signing a two-year contract with Champa Manpower.

Lim Mony, deputy head of the women’s section at ADHOC, said she was working with authorities to bring Sanh Makara home before her contract ended because the Cambodian government had suspended Champa Manpower’s licence.

“I’m working with the Ministry of Interior to help her. When the agency realised she had filed a complaint to ADHOC, they seemed to not mistreat her as much,” Lim Mony said.

Chiv Phally, deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Human and Trafficking Department, said it would investigate the matter if the victim’s family filed a complaint.

Officials at Champa Manpower could not be reached for comment.