Poverty in Cambodia had forced many poor families to send their children to beg in the streets of Hanoi, Saigon, and Bangkok. Cambodia consulates and embassies are not doing much to protect their poor and destitute nationals who are often rounded up and dumped at a border post. Meanwhile, million of illegal Vietnamese are allowed to live freely in Cambodia, under the full protection of the Vietnamese embassy, consulates, and numerous associations. (Photo mutualunderstanding.net)Tuesday, March 7, 2006
BY YUN SAMEAN
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
The National Assembly approved a treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam Monday to allow additional consulates to be set up in both countries to promote investment and ensure protection for their nationals.
Eighty-two of 92 lawmakers voted to approve the treaty, but business was only partially focused on during the debate prior to the vote, in which the emotional issue of Cambodian beggars in Vietnam and Thailand also featured prominently.
While existing Vietnamese consulates in Cambodia protect their nationals, Cambodian beggars in Vietnam are sometimes arrested and dumped back in Cambodia, Funcinpec lawmaker Monh Saphan said.
"Vietnamese consulates protect their people but we have difficulty," Monh Saphan said of the plight of Cambodians in Vietnam.
Vietnam has consulates in Battambang province and Sihanoukville, he said.
Cambodians who enter Vietnam illegally are sometimes arrested after one hour, while Vietnamese nationals entering Cambodia without proper papers are able to take a taxi to Phnom Penh and no one dares try and stop them, he added.
Long Visalo, CPP secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Assembly that Cambodian beggars have brought shame on their nation. "The beggars have destroyed our country's reputation," he said, adding that the ministry cooperates with Vietnamese officials to repatriate Cambodian beggars arrested there.
He also added that people are organizing poor Cambodian children and taking them to Thailand, where the children are drugged to make them appear to be disabled while they beg.
Opposition party lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang defended the beggars, saying a lack of opportunities and the government's handling of the economy have caused people to leave Cambodia "The government should not blame the beggars. People don’t have employment. That’s why they force themselves to do that," he said. "They don’t want to beg."
Svay Rieng Provincial Court on Monday ordered three parents to thumbprint an agreement to stop smuggling their children and other youngsters to Vietnam to work as beggars, officials said. The three, who were arrested Friday with an assortment of children who they were allegedly taking to Vietnam to beg, had been damaging Cambodia's reputation, said Ung Sam Ol, deputy police chief of the province's anti-human trafficking department.
"They were ordered to thumbprint a promise to stop smuggling their children to beg money in Vietnam, because it affects both the country's reputation and the children's studies," he said.
In Sarun, 47, and his wife Pok Song, 45, were arrested and accused of smuggling four of their own children and one young relative into Vietnam. Phoeng Thoeun, 41, was arrested for smuggling four of his own children, said Neth Saroeun, the province's anti-human trafficking department police chief Ung Sam Ol said the adults hailed from the province's Mesa Thgak commune in Chantrea district. The 11 children were sent to the provincial social affairs department following the arrest of their parents, but have since been allowed to return home, he added.
The National Assembly approved a treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam Monday to allow additional consulates to be set up in both countries to promote investment and ensure protection for their nationals.
Eighty-two of 92 lawmakers voted to approve the treaty, but business was only partially focused on during the debate prior to the vote, in which the emotional issue of Cambodian beggars in Vietnam and Thailand also featured prominently.
While existing Vietnamese consulates in Cambodia protect their nationals, Cambodian beggars in Vietnam are sometimes arrested and dumped back in Cambodia, Funcinpec lawmaker Monh Saphan said.
"Vietnamese consulates protect their people but we have difficulty," Monh Saphan said of the plight of Cambodians in Vietnam.
Vietnam has consulates in Battambang province and Sihanoukville, he said.
Cambodians who enter Vietnam illegally are sometimes arrested after one hour, while Vietnamese nationals entering Cambodia without proper papers are able to take a taxi to Phnom Penh and no one dares try and stop them, he added.
Long Visalo, CPP secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Assembly that Cambodian beggars have brought shame on their nation. "The beggars have destroyed our country's reputation," he said, adding that the ministry cooperates with Vietnamese officials to repatriate Cambodian beggars arrested there.
He also added that people are organizing poor Cambodian children and taking them to Thailand, where the children are drugged to make them appear to be disabled while they beg.
Opposition party lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang defended the beggars, saying a lack of opportunities and the government's handling of the economy have caused people to leave Cambodia "The government should not blame the beggars. People don’t have employment. That’s why they force themselves to do that," he said. "They don’t want to beg."
Svay Rieng Provincial Court on Monday ordered three parents to thumbprint an agreement to stop smuggling their children and other youngsters to Vietnam to work as beggars, officials said. The three, who were arrested Friday with an assortment of children who they were allegedly taking to Vietnam to beg, had been damaging Cambodia's reputation, said Ung Sam Ol, deputy police chief of the province's anti-human trafficking department.
"They were ordered to thumbprint a promise to stop smuggling their children to beg money in Vietnam, because it affects both the country's reputation and the children's studies," he said.
In Sarun, 47, and his wife Pok Song, 45, were arrested and accused of smuggling four of their own children and one young relative into Vietnam. Phoeng Thoeun, 41, was arrested for smuggling four of his own children, said Neth Saroeun, the province's anti-human trafficking department police chief Ung Sam Ol said the adults hailed from the province's Mesa Thgak commune in Chantrea district. The 11 children were sent to the provincial social affairs department following the arrest of their parents, but have since been allowed to return home, he added.
(Additional reporting by Kuch Naren and Whitney Kvasager)
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