National Employment Agency Seeks To Address Joblessness

The agency has disseminated some 80,000 job opportunities since 2010, but has only placed about 3,000 people.

07 September 2012
Suy Heimkhemra, VOA Khmer

PHNOM PENH - With graduating students and other youth facing the prospect of increased unemployment, the National Employment Agency, established in 2009, has much work to do.

Down its halls a visitor can find many youths, discussing among themselves their prospects and the problem of joblessness.

Officials at the agency and economists say the NEA provides a necessary service in a sometimes chaotic employment environment, where too many people are competing for too few jobs.

The agency has disseminated some 80,000 job opportunities since 2010, but has only placed about 3,000 people. Officials at the government office say not enough people take advantage of the free service.

People in my village work as unskilled laborers abroad

It's gloomy for me to see the youths commonly known as future citizens of the once Khmer Empire that ruled Southeast Asia seeking jobs as unskilled laborers abroad.

Ou Ritthy

July, 4, 2012
An article by Ou Ritthy published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

At first, I could not recognize the group of noisy skinny youths, about 20 in all, with dyed hair, ragged jeans and colorful shirts, drinking beer in this remote village in Pursat where I live. Their clothes and behaviors tell me they are not from the village. I thought they must be friends or relatives of some villagers. Normally, villagers here wear Kroma (scarf), or pants with or without shirts.

Then someone in the group shouted to me to join the group to drink. As I walked closer to them I realized they were all my friends. We used to tender cattle together in the last ten years.

They told me that they had been drinking beer since the early morning; they were proud of their capacity to consume alcohol. One of them complained that it's now hard to find and buy the popular and affordable Leo and Change beers, both Thai products, which were out of stock in Pursat during this Khmer New Year.

They told me they never had so much fun together; for these three whole days of the New Year, they confessed, each had already spent 200,000 riels ($50) to enjoy themselves, to buy and drink beer and home-made alcohol (the popular SraSor the people in Pursat love), dance to loud music through the night, and gamble (card games and KlaKlok). They were celebrating as they and their family members had just returned from work in Thailand.

I also met some villagers who could not pay for their entertainment during the New Year. They had not earned enough money. Worse, some were arrested and jailed in Thailand for a few months for working illegally. A few people who were injured in work accidents in Thailand became disable, and had not been able to help their parents in the rice-field. Sadly, their parents had to sell land for their medical treatment. And I met a villager, near death, who was very sick and skinny as she contracted AIDS/HIV while working at the border.

Report of a young Cambodian student on an Exchange Programme in Germany, 2011

Breed of mass murderers

June 11, 2012
Contributors: Rathana Am

Source: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-ART-047-2012

In Cambodia, you can criticize the government openly, but tomorrow you will be murdered or put in jail. This is such a coward action of the Cambodian government because they do not even dare to confront criticisms.

Upon arriving in Germany, I saw that the roads are very clean, quiet with very little traffic jam. At that moment, my expression was, "Wow!" This is a developed country, and everything is so organized and clean. On the streets, there were few people walking and during my first week there, I did not see any beggars. I thought to myself, "This is such a rich country with no poverty". However, after talking with women in Courage, I got to know that there is in fact, hidden poverty in Germany. So I tried to look out for poor people in Germany but I could not identify them because to me, their skin and faces all looked the same.

I used to think that all the people in Germany have decent lives and jobs and they do not need to think about what they will have for food the next day. However, I saw it really clearly when I visited a free soup-kitchen. There were many people and mostly, old and middle age that came for their free lunch. In Germany, if the people did not have anything to eat, at least some of them get free food in these soup-kitchens. However, in Cambodia, as well as in Bangladesh, if people do not have money to buy food, they will have to starve or beg in the streets. They know it is because of the corruption in their countries that they have to live in poverty. However, they do not want to go against their governments or ask their governments to be more responsible for the people. Poor people in my country, Cambodia, they do not know much about politics, so it is hard for them to organize themselves or to go against the government.

Chea Phalla, a Cambodian maid rescued from abuse in Malaysia. Her jaw was broken by her employers

For young Cambodians, if they cannot find jobs, they will migrate legally or illegally to neighboring countries such as, Malaysia or Thailand. They will find ways to escape from their poverty rather than confront the reality directly, so it is really hard for them to go on strike or ask the government to give them jobs or be responsible for their unemployment. It is very funny to me that the Cambodian government promises our people that it will find them employment abroad as a solution to our joblessness. Now the Cambodian government is working with South Korea, Malaysia, Qatar and other Arab states to send laborers to these countries. By doing this, the government can say blindly that it has reduced youth unemployment rate in Cambodia. The government does not however, take responsibility for our migrant workers at all. They do not care about the condition of our workers in the foreign land. There were many cases that Cambodian domestic workers who work in Malaysia were tortured and working in sweatshop-like condition. They do not have rights. In fact, some of them were used like slaves or machines.

There was a student's revolution against the brutal dictatorship of the government before the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. Even now, we are still living under the dictatorship; still there is no revolution. Trade union leaders and journalists were murdered, still there is no reaction and people have become even more scared about taking actions.

Lost Opportunities as Cambodian Labor Goes Abroad: Advocate

Khmer fishermen working as slaves returning home from Malaysia (Photo: Licadho)

Friday, 30 March 2012
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington

“We see a lot of job opportunity in Cambodia these days. The problem is, how many people know about the jobs?”

Even with an improved domestic job market, many Cambodian workers are seeking jobs overseas, despite the risks.

This is mainly due to the government’s failure to get the word out, Moeun Tola, a labor advocate at the Community Legal Education Center, told “Hello VOA” Thursday.

“We see a lot of job opportunity in Cambodia these days,” he said. “The problem is, how many people know about the jobs?”

Cambodia has just five job centers nationwide, he said, but people still don’t know much about them.

The main job creators in Cambodia are in agriculture, industry and tourism, but policymakers have looked at the export of labor as a way to ease employment pressure.

Families fear abuse overseas

Family members of five men sent to work on Thai fishing boats in Africa file a complaint with Adhoc over the weekend, saying they have not heard from their sons in several months. (Photo Supplied)

Monday, 06 February 2012
Sen David
The Phnom Penh Post

Eight families in Kampong Chhnang filed complaints with Adhoc over the weekend, reporting that their sons and daughters sent abroad to work as maids and fishermen were being mistreated and that in some cases, they had not heard from them in nearly a year.

Adhoc provincial coordinator Sam Chankea said his office received reports from the families of six women who had been sent to work as maids in Malaysia, claiming that last year their daughters had complained of abuse and had “begged” for help.

Sam Chankea also said the families of five men who had been sent to work on Thai fishing boats in Africa reported that they had not heard from their sons for several months.

“The men who were working as fishermen stopped sending money back to their families, so their families became worried, and the six Cambodian maids reported incidents of abuse and begged for help,” he said.

AP Interview: Cambodian maids decry abuse and exploitation by Malaysian employers

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011, Cambodian maid Hok Pov, 31, cries as she speaks during an interview in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hok Pov may be poor but she had never been beaten or gone hungry until she came to work in Malaysia in April. She is among 41 Cambodian maids rescued this year by Malaysian rights activists, who warn of rising abuse and exploitation due to inadequate law to protect them. ((Lai Seng Sin / Associated Press)

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011, Cambodian maid Hok Pov, 31, tries to hold back the tears as she speaks during an interview in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hok Pov may be poor but she had never been beaten or gone hungry until she came to work in Malaysia in April. She is among 41 Cambodian maids rescued this year by Malaysian rights activists, who warn of rising abuse and exploitation due to inadequate law to protect them. Photo: Lai Seng Sin / AP

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011, Cambodian maid Hok Pov, 31, tries to hold back the tears as she speaks during an interview in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hok Pov may be poor but she had never been beaten or gone hungry until she came to work in Malaysia in April. She is among 41 Cambodian maids rescued this year by Malaysian rights activists, who warn of rising abuse and exploitation due to inadequate law to protect them. Photo: Lai Seng Sin / AP

Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Hok Pov had never been beaten and never known hunger until she came to work in Malaysia in April.

In the six weeks that she worked as a maid for a Malaysian family, she says she lost 22 pounds (10 kilograms) while toiling 20 hours a day with little to eat. Often she was slapped and punched by her employer, she says.

“I was so hungry that I even ate chicken bones,” a sobbing Hok Pov, 31, told The Associated Press at the office of Malaysian rights’ group Tenaganita that rescued her in June with the help of police.

“There was always lot of work to do and I had to suffer beatings. Once I was slapped so hard that my tooth fell off. Who can bear this?” Hok Pov said in her first media interview.

She is among 41 Cambodian maids rescued this year by the group, highlighting the frequent abuse and exploitation of foreign domestic workers due to inadequate laws in this wealthy Southeast Asian nation.

Engineers Ready, But Nowhere To Go [-Joblessness will read to social unrest ... and Jasmine Revolution]

Two Cambodian boys fish on an empty drainage pipe at the natural irrigation canal in Kompong Speu province. (Photo: AP)

Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Say Mony, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“The use of the skills acquired by graduate engineers in the labor market is still limited.”

A growing group of young engineers say they are ready for the government to make use of their skills but are facing limited job prospects.

“The use of the skills acquired by graduate engineers in the labor market is still limited,” said Chann Rithy, vice president of Techno Charity, a group of engineers, as a guest Monday on “Hello VOA.”

Techno Charity has around 50 members who are graduates of the Institute of Technology of Cambodia. They volunteer to build wells and provide study materials to children in rural areas.

“The government has to consider that engineers need to employ the skills they’ve learned at school,” Chann Rithy said. “So they need the right workplaces to use them properly.”

 

Cambodia currently has about 20,000 engineers, he said, trained in areas like agricultural hydrology, irrigation, electronics and information technology. However, many of them are unable to apply their studies to work after graduation because there is nowhere for them to go.

Youth Representatives Debate Migrant Labor Policies

SRP and CPP youths debated each other on the IRI forum (Photo:Siv Channa, CEN)

Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“The flow of laborers to foreign countries is a sign that shows Cambodia lacks jobs.”

The Cambodian government came under criticism Wednesday for failing to create jobs for an influx of workers entering the market and instead sending too many workers abroad.

Speaking at a forum to discuss the government’s migrant worker policies, In Sam Ol, a youth representative for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said authorities had failed to develop an economy that could absorb some 137,000 workers this year alone.

“The flow of laborers to foreign countries is a sign that shows Cambodia lacks jobs,” he said, speaking at a forum for youth political representatives of the Sam Rainsy Party and ruling Cambodian People’s Party. “The countries receiving our laborers look down on our country. For this reason, we must prevent the flow of Cambodian laborers to foreign countries.”

Migrant Labor: Cambodia's Daughters to Malaysia - Part 3

Cambodian women look to Malaysia for work

Sun, 21 Nove 2010
By Brian Calvert
VOANews.com

PREAH VIHEAR: Cambodian women are increasingly finding work as domestic labour in Malaysia. But in their rush to employment, some are finding little protection from abuse at work. Like many developing countries, Cambodia is trying to find ways to protect its migrant workers.

A team of oxen pulls a cart into the rice fields in northern Cambodia, where a rural way of life means few opportunities for work.

Now, young women in Preah Vihear province say they are finding opportunity as maids in Malaysia. But some of them are finding more trouble than they bargained for.

Sao Orn and her husband, Ros Chheoun, spend weeks at a time out here in the fields, harvesting what little rice grows in the hard ground. When their daughter, Champei, came to them with the idea of working in Malaysia, they had misgivings.

Sao Orn says she asked her daughter not to go, even though the family is poor. But Champei insisted.

Sao Orn's worst fears were realized, when Champei came back seven months later, traumatized from severe sexual and physical abuse. Her daughter was not the same as when she had left.

These days Champei stays at home, taking care of the family pig, unable to work. And unable to trust people. "Now, people no good. People very bad, can beat me. No good also," she said.

Like many developing countries, Cambodia needs jobs for its growing population. And Malaysia wants maids to serve a growing class of professionals.

The number of Cambodians sent to Malaysia nearly quadrupled in the past year, to around 20,000. The surge comes after Indonesia banned its workers from going because of abuses.

Lured by promises of good pay, women sign up with local recruiters. But there are few safeguards for them in place and little communication back home.

No system in place

E Saro, the governor of Champei's home district, Rovieng, says the government does not yet have a protective system in place.

The national government is drafting a new law that will aim to protect young women from dishonest recruiters and establish a fund to help them if they get in trouble in Malaysia.

But that is little consolation for Champei's parents, who now must worry for their daughter on top of everything else.

Champei's father says he is still angry with the recruiters who promised his daughter wealth but abandoned her when she was in need.

If I see them again, he says, I'll cut their throats.

Group Wants More Government Control Over Labor Agencies

The Cambodian government has promoted migrant work abroad as one way to ease unemployment. (Photo: By Taing Sarada)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 14 September 2010

“The labor recruitment agencies must open an opportunity for the concerned government ministries and non-governmental organizations to observe in the places where the workers are staying before leaving for jobs abroad.”

The rights group Adhoc on Tuesday called for more government control of labor agencies, which it says have been responsible for abuses against migrant workers abroad.

There are more than 30 labor recruitment agencies with licenses from the Ministry of Labor, the group said, but some of the businesses operate more like human traffickers than helpful recruiters.

Adhoc has so far this year received 28 reports of worker violations from employers in Malaysia, including non-stop work, beatings, food deprivation and rape. It has also documented 23 violations of labor rights.

The Cambodian government has promoted migrant work abroad as one way to ease unemployment.

“We want to have a special legal instrument for managing Cambodian migrant workers, as they've suffered from different violations from local labor recruitment agencies and their bosses in Malaysia,” Kea Sophal, an Adhoc attorney, told reporters Tuesday.

Adhoc is recommending a monitoring mechanism to oversee working conditions, legal documentation and contracts between agencies and workers.

“The labor recruitment agencies must open an opportunity for the concerned government ministries and non-governmental organizations to observe in the places where the workers are staying before leaving for jobs abroad,” the group said in a statement.

Sok Chanpheakdey, secretary-general for the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, which has 16 company members, said he also encouraged a better government mechanism to protect workers.

Nhem Kimhouy, director of the employment office for the Ministry of Labor, said the ministry does counsel recruitment agencies in an effort to prevent worker violations.

According to a circular, the ministry now prohibits agencies from providing loans to workers' families and also seeks to control the spread of agent networks.

Sok Chanpheakdey said that the 16 agencies in his association will respect the ministry guidelines. But he acknowledged that other businesses may not.

“Some labor recruitment agencies provide loans to recruited workers, and when they've asked not to go abroad to work, the agencies pressure them to pay back [the loan],” he said. “If we depend on the law, that loan provision is an act of human trafficking.”

ASEAN: Cambodians working in foreign countries tops 39,000

September 10, 2010
Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr
www.livetradingnews.com

Cambodian government said Friday that by the 1-Half of this year, about 40,000 Cambodian are working in foreign countries.

At a round-table discussion with Club of Cambodian Journalists, Hou Vuthy, deputy director general of the General Directorate of Ministry of Labor and his colleagues told reporters that by June this year, there were 39,051 Cambodian workers working in Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

They said there were 19,588 Cambodians laborers working in Malaysia, 10,284 working in Thailand, 9,082 in South Korea and 97 in Japan.

Through these workers, about US$150M was sent back to Cambodia every year, said Hou Vuthy.

He said their salary, while working in Thailand and Malaysia is about US$200 per month, whereas in South Korea and Japan is between 800 and 1,000US $’s per month.

Hou Vuthy said Cambodian laborers were first sent to work abroad in Y 1995.

As of date, Cambodian workers are only sent to these four countries, but more targeted nations such as Kuwait, Qatar, Canada and Singapore are being negotiated, and hope those countries will accept Cambodian labors in the near future, according to Hou Vuthy.

Requirements for foreign company to use 80% of Khmer work force - Editorial by Ven. Hok Savann

Click on the article in Khmer to zoom in

Eight Cambodian men back home after two years of fishing 'slavery'

The eight Cambodian men who were repatriated back from Malaysia (Photo: Licadho)

Mon, 17 May 2010
DPA

A recent conference in Phnom Penh was told that poverty and a lack of job opportunities in rural areas were driving Cambodian men into uncertain work opportunities in neighbouring countries.

Phnom Penh - Eight Cambodian men have been repatriated from Malaysia after spending up to two years working in slave-like conditions on Thai fishing vessels, local media reported Monday.

The men told human rights workers they were promised well-paid jobs in Thailand, but once there were forced onto fishing boats.

They said they were required to work for no pay, and eventually managed to jump ship when their boats docked in Malaysia for repairs.

Cham Mab, who left Cambodia in 2007, said he had witnessed men who were ill being thrown overboard.

"We tried to work even when we were sick, because we were afraid that if we did not work then they would throw us into the sea," he told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Manfred Hornung, a legal adviser at human rights group Licadho, which was involved in the repatriation, said four of the men had escaped from the same boat.

He said the returnees had given Licadho the names of other Cambodian men they met who had been detained by authorities in neighbouring countries.

"They want organisations and government authorities to help these other Cambodians since they have had such a gruesome experience," he said. "They want to make sure their fellow nationals are able to come home."

A recent conference in Phnom Penh was told that poverty and a lack of job opportunities in rural areas were driving Cambodian men into uncertain work opportunities in neighbouring countries.

Cambodian men run slavery risk on region's fishing boats

Wed, 12 May 2010
Robert Carmichael
DPA

Phnom Penh - Sok Sopheng was 21 when an employment agent offered him the chance of a job in neighbouring Thailand.

As one of nine children from a small village in rural Cambodia, his prospects were limited. His family owned just half a hectare of land, and his father was ill with beriberi.

Along with three friends, Sok Sopheng (name changed on request to protect identity) decided to cross illegally into Thailand and get the promised factory or construction work paying 110 US dollars a month. The four of them ended up virtually slaved on a fishing boat.

The issue of male trafficking is generally ignored - though that is starting to change.

Manfred Hornung, legal adviser at Cambodian human-rights group Licadho, said that Sok Sopheng's experience is typical of more than 60 Cambodian men his organization interviewed who were trafficked into slave-like conditions aboard Thai and Malaysian fishing boats.

In rural Cambodia, where many of the victims are recruited, the risks are not well understood. Hornung said the process generally starts with an agent visiting a village, where there is usually little work or opportunities.

Sok Sopheng and his companions were taken to Pak Nam, a fishing port 30 kilometres south of Bangkok. It was only when they were locked in a guesthouse that they realized something was wrong. Days later, they were sold to a fishing boat captain.

Sok Sopheng told researchers from Licadho that they were press- ganged onto the boat. The captain said they would get paid once they had completed three years work.

Six months later, Sok Sopheng jumped ship.

Hornung explained: "(The agent) approaches a group of young males to convince them to go to Thailand. In most cases this broker won't tell these youngsters that they have to work on a fishing boat."

The victims are lured with stories of construction or plantation jobs, which sound more promising than the meagre livelihoods available at home.

Once in Thailand, they are at the mercy of the agents.

Hornung stresses that not all fishing boat crews are coerced, but that conditions on the worst boats amount to modern-day slavery. He said the men are usually unable to escape because the captains and Thai crews are often armed.

"Once they are on the boats, they have to work long hours - in most cases these young fishermen tell us that they have maybe two to three hours rest per night," Hornung said.

They get meagre rations of food, are regularly beaten and are drugged to keep them awake and working.

"We have had reports that men who fell sick were thrown overboard," he said, adding that many of the worst ships stay at sea for months at a time, loading their catches onto motherships on the South China Sea.

In one recent case, a Cambodian man was kept at sea for three years without seeing land.

"He was basically sold on the high seas from boat to boat over a three-year period. And these cases are not infrequent," Hornung said.

Although little research has been done on the topic, a recent conference on migration in Phnom Penh did broach the subject.

Louise Rose, a victim protection officer for The Asia Foundation (TAF), a non-governmental organization, said that 100,000 men, women and children were deported last year from Thailand.

Among those were 258 men whom TAF questioned in what remains the largest survey to date on Cambodian male trafficking. Rose said more than 90 per cent of those men surveyed had worked on fishing boats, and one in five of them had experienced the slave-like conditions that Sok Sopheng encountered.

Researchers were keen to understand what motivated the men to leave Cambodia, as this would help them draft a programme to protect others. Half of the men cited debt as a motivator in looking for work in Thailand. Even more blamed a lack of food.

"Three-quarters of the men reported not enough food being a motivator for migrating," she said. "And the other one that was even higher again was no source of income. That was about 78 per cent."

Lack of income and opportunity were what compelled Sok Sopheng to move. After jumping ship in Malaysia, he was sold to a plantation owner, where he was again forced to work for free.

It took Sok Sopheng another year to get home, where he now works as a farmer and part-time labourer.

Cambodia's economy remains weak, and prospects remain poor for the 350,000 young people entering its job market each year. The agents scouring the countryside are unlikely to run out of candidates for the region's fishing fleets any time soon.

The dangers in trafficking Cambodian men

May 11, 2010
ABC Radio Free Asia

Tens of thousands of Cambodians cross into neighbouring countries each year in search of work. But agreeing to work abroad illegally can be dangerous not least for men who are generally not seen as being at much risk.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Louise Rose, victim protection officer, The Asia Foundation; Manfred Hornung, legal adviser at human rights NGO Licadho

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CARMICHAEL: The phrase 'human trafficking' commonly conjures up images of women and children sold into servitude, bonded labour or brothels.

But men are of course trafficked too, although until recently the issue of male trafficking in south-east Asia was ignored and unstudied.

But at this hotel in Phnom Penh, delegates have gathered for a conference on the issue of regional migration, with a particular focus on Cambodia.

Louise Rose works as a victim protection officer for The Asia Foundation, an NGO, and spoke to delegates about male trafficking.

She says in recent years the issue of Cambodian men being trafficked onto fishing boats in Thailand and Malaysia has gained some attention, but information about the scale of the issue is limited.

Rose says the most comprehensive study to date is of 258 men who were returned to Cambodia through the southern province of Koh Kong. Most of the men had worked on fishing boats in Thailand.

She says the men - who represent just a fraction of more than 100,000 Cambodian men, women and children deported from Thailand each year - were asked about their motivations for migrating.

Researchers found that debt drove half to leave Cambodia and look for work. Two other factors were even more significant.

LOUISE ROSE: Lack of food was a huge one. Three-quarters of the men reported not enough food being a motivator for migrating. And the other one that was even higher again - no source of income.

CARMICHAEL: No jobs, no food, low skills, limited land, and few opportunities for the 350,000 young people entering the job market each year mean there is a large supply of ready labour in rural Cambodia.

Manfred Hornung is a legal adviser with human rights NGO Licadho. Over the past three years Licadho has interviewed more than 60 men brought back to Cambodia who were trafficked onto Thai fishing vessels.

He says the men's stories have a common thread, starting at the point where an agent turned up in their home village with promises of work.

MANFRED HORNUNG: So in most cases this broker won't tell these youngsters that they have to work on a fishing boat. They'll tell them he will find work for them in the construction sector or on a plantation in Thailand. In most cases they are promised well-paid jobs.

CARMICHAEL: The men are smuggled across the border into neighbouring Thailand, and then down to Pak Nam fishing port 30 kilometres south of Bangkok.

There they are locked in guesthouses until they are sold to the captains of vessels in Thailand's multi-billion dollar fishing industry.

Hornung says conditions on board the fishing boats can be horrific. And since the captain and Thai crew are often armed, press-ganged fishermen from Cambodia, Burma or Laos have few options.

MANFRED HORNUNG: A very typical story then is that once they are on the boats they have to work long hours - in most cases these young fishermen tell us that they have maybe two to three hours rest per night; that they receive very meagre rations of food, that they are constantly beaten; they are drugged because they have to work long hours; we have had reports that men who fell sick were thrown overboard.

CARMICHAEL: In some cases, matters are so bad that the men jump overboard at night and try to swim to land. That's what three Cambodians did off the coast off East Timor in February this year. Luckily they were rescued by local fishermen and are awaiting repatriation.

You might think it would be easy enough to jump ship when fishing boats reach port. But the decline in fish stocks means some boats stay at sea for months, and make contact only with mother-ships onto which they offload their catch.

The solution will require better cooperation among governments in the region, improved services for migrants, and education about the risks involved.

But until that happens, unscrupulous agents, corruption, poverty and a lack of jobs mean more of Cambodia's youth will experience this version of 21st century slavery.

Poverty and family debt fuel male migration to Thailand

Thursday, 06 May 2010
David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

YOUNG Cambodian men are pursuing risky job opportunities in Thailand because of dire economic circumstances at home, and 63 percent cite family debt as an additional factor, according to report findings presented at a conference on regional migration that began on Wednesday.

The findings from the unfinished report, gathered by the NGOs South East Asia Investigation into Human Trafficking (SISHA) and Health Care Centre for Children (HCC), were presented at the International Conference on Mobility Patterns of Cambodian and Other Nationals in the South East Asia Region.

Hour Ngy, Koh Kong provincial coordinator for HCC, said after a presentation on the report that he believed male migration to Thailand was on the rise.

“The number is still increasing, and there are several factors,” he said. “Although they know it is a risky situation, they don’t have many choices because of their situation at home.”

The report draws from interviews with 258 men between October 2008 and July 2009. Of those, 82 percent cited relative poverty within their communities as a motivation for illegally migrating to Thailand.

Louise Rose, programme officer for the Asia Foundation’s Counter-Trafficking in Persons project, told the conference that previous surveys suggest that about 1,000 Cambodians are illegally entering Thailand every year, but she noted that specific research on male migrants is scarce.

She said that most of those surveyed were not trafficked into Thailand. Upon arriving, about 90 percent ended up working on Thai fishing boats.

A report released by Human Rights Watch in February said that Cambodians working on Thai fishing boats were routinely subjected to extortion and abuse, and that they were denied basic legal rights.

In an earlier presentation at the conference, Keo Sam Oeun, a postgraduate student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, accused both the government and NGOs of ignoring problems faced by male migrants and focusing instead on women and children.

“I had difficulty when I called the Ministry of Labour, because every time I called they said there weren’t any male migrants in Cambodia,” he said.

Hem Bunny, director of the ministry’s Employee and Manpower Department, said Wednesday that he could not comment specifically on male migrants, but that the government has worked broadly with NGOs to encourage safe migration.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY THARUM BUN

Illegal migrants from Cambodia remit less

Thursday, 06 May 2010
Cameron Wells and May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Study says those from Laos, Myanmar send more

CAMBODIAN migrants working illegally in Thailand are less likely to send money back to their relatives than their counterparts from Myanmar and Laos, researchers said Wednesday in Phnom Penh at the launch of a conference on regional migration.

Around 40 percent of Cambodian workers send money back to their families, whereas 51 percent of workers from Myanmar and 56 percent of workers from Laos do the same, according to research conducted by the Institute of Population and Social Research at Mahidol University in Bangkok.

Aree Jampaklay, the lead author of a draft report presented at the conference, said researchers had been unable to determine why Cambodians remit less money, but speculated that Cambodian workers might be more likely to have brought their families with them when they crossed the border.

“One reason might be because [Cambodians] who live in Thailand might have family already in the country, or because they are unregistered they can come back and forth,” she said.

The draft report drew from interviews with 356 migrants – 120 each from Cambodia and Myanmar, and 116 from Laos – conducted in 2007. Andy Hall, director of Thailand’s Migrant Justice Programme, said that although the study was somewhat dated, the overall findings were likely still accurate.

We live illegally, so one month our boss cut our salary by 300 baht (US$9).

Several illegal migrant workers interviewed on Wednesday said they were prevented from sending more money back home by payments they were forced to make to employers to avoid deportation.

Meng Kong, who said he works in the timber industry and has been based in Thailand’s Trat province for the past 18 years, said his boss sporadically forced him to pay a fee to avoid being turned over to police.

“We live illegally, so one month our boss cut our salary by 300 baht (US$9) per month,” he said. “If we don’t agree, the police will come to arrest us.”

Hall said remittance payments from illegal Cambodian migrant workers would likely decrease as a result of Thailand’s new nationality-verification process. Migrant workers were given a deadline of March 2 to register for the process, wherein they were to submit documents to their home governments in order to secure new work permits in Thailand.

“I would say the number [of migrants sending remittance payments] would be the same, but I would imagine remittance would be hit quite hard by registration, because of additional costs they have to pay,” he said.

The conference, dubbed the “International Conference on Mobility Patterns of Cambodian and Other Nationals in the South East Asia Region”, runs until Friday.

Cambodian garment workers facing uphill battle in global downturn – UN

Garment workers going home on motorcycles in Cambodia [File Photo]

Source: UN News Centre

25 March 2010 – Even those Cambodian garment workers who were able to hold on to their jobs in the face of global economic challenges have not escaped the current downturn unscathed, a new survey led by the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) has found.
Factory closures or cutbacks due to reduced orders forced many garment workers in the South-East Asian nation out of a job. One in 10 unemployed workers lost their positions two or more times last year, with most still looking for work.

A study assessing 1,200 employed and 800 unemployed workers in the capital, Phnom Penh, finds that many with work have had their salaries slashed and now feel as though they do not have enough money to cover remittances and basic needs such as food, health care and transport.

Many of those who lost their jobs but managed to find new ones are working under less favourable conditions, seeking assistance from trade unions for assistance on challenges such as asking for leave and late wage payments.

Even though laid-off workers have looked for jobs in other garment factories, only one third of them succeed in finding work.

Those looking outside the garment industry typically try to find jobs in the service sector to work as salespeople, tailors or food vendors.

Even though many would like to enroll in training programmes, the cannot, and the families of some workers, both employed and unemployed, have sent additional family members – mostly women – to find work to deal with the loss in income.

“The information we are gathering though the survey has been helpful in identifying action that can be taken by a range of stakeholders to help struggling workers, strengthen the garment sector, and better prepare the country to deal with future economic setbacks,” said Tuomo Poutiainen, chief technical adviser at ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia initiative.

Based on the survey results, ILO is calling for employment policies promoting productive employment, enhancing social protection and working with employers to be compliant with labour laws.

The study was commissioned by the ILO with the support of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and was carried out by the Cambodia Institute of Development Study (CIDS).

Another Cambodian seriously injured after being shot by the Thais

03 Feb 2010
By Pech Bandol
Free Press Magazine online
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

In addition to the various other dead and injured people, on Tuesday, another Cambodian citizen was seriously injured by a Thai bullet when he and a group of 11 other men attempted to cross the border to log trees inside Thailand, along the border with Oddar Meanchey province.

According to local villagers and human rights group officials, a 25-year-old man living in O’Smach commune, Samrong district, Oddar Meanchey province was shot once on his right hand, and once in the back by Thai soldiers at about 5:30AM when Thai soldiers discovered a group of about 12 men inside the Thai territory.

Ly Kim Eng, the father of Ly Khloeung, said that his son is still alive after being shot twice. Nevertheless, Ly Kim Eng said: “This is normal life for people living in O’Smach commune. They have to earn a living through logging trees along the border.”

This is another heartbreaking story for poor Cambodian villagers who are forced to venture into logging trees or working as laborers in Thailand. In the past, Cambodian villagers met with horrendous circumstances, some were shot dead, while others were burnt alive or have their heads cut off by Thai soldiers. The information on these tragedies was made available to the public, but it is rare that the Cambodian government would react to all these savage acts.

Cambodian government officials prohibit Cambodian villagers from crossing the border to Thailand to log trees, or work as laborers. However, because Cambodia did not create enough jobs to prevent such flood of illegal workers crossing into Thailand, Cambodian villagers continue to serve as shooting target for the Thai soldiers. All of this is due to the hunger of these Cambodian villagers.