Cambodian Ban Step in the Right Direction to Combat Human Trafficking

March 23, 2010
Ms. Magazine (USA)

Cambodia has temporarily barred South Korean men from marrying Cambodian women. The ban, imposed earlier this month, came after Cambodian police arrested a woman for allegedly trafficking 25 women and for about 100 US dollars each, reports Asia Pacific News.

The ban will eventually be lifted, but the government plans to first install an efficient screening mechanism to prevent cases of trafficking and prove that South Korean men are single and do not have a criminal record. John McGeoghan, project coordinator for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said the ban was a positive step and was quoted in the Phnom Penh Post as saying "It’s good to see the Cambodian government is taking this issue seriously."

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Friday that the ban pertains only to South Korean men because nearly 60 percent of international marriages in Cambodia involve Korean nationals, and most of them are arranged through brokers.

There was a similar ban imposed in 2008 after the International Organization for Migration released a report indicating that marriage brokers were making profitable business from supplying Cambodian brides to South Korean men; the ban lasted eight months. Though Cambodia has banned marriage brokerage since that time, the Washington Post reports that the number of Cambodian women marrying Korean men has more than doubled from 551 in 2008 to 1,372 last year.

Media Resources: Asia Pacific News 3/21/10; Phnom Penh Post 3/22/10; Yonhap News 3/19/10; Washington Post 3/19/10

Marriage vs. Trafficking

Cambodian Move Indicates Exploitation of Foreign Brides

04-08-2008
The Korea Times

South Korea has increasingly come under attack for the abuse and exploitation of foreign wives, especially those from Southeast Asian countries. The plight of Vietnamese wives married to Koreans has already invited international criticism over rights abuses and human trafficking. It is heart-wrenching to read frequent stories that Vietnamese spouses were beaten to death or committed suicide ― far from realizing their ``Korean dream.''

What's more worrisome is that such a story does not stop with the ill-fated Vietnamese. The problem is now spreading to Cambodia. The Cambodian government has recently suspended processing all documents for marriages of its citizens with foreigners as a measure to minimize the possibility of human trafficking. You Ay, Cambodia's deputy minister of women's affairs, said April 3 that the suspension was prompted by concerns about exploitation and trafficking amid a surge in the number of Cambodian women marrying South Koreans.

She said the suspension affects all foreigners, not just South Koreans. But it is apparent that the measure was closely related to soaring cases of abuse of foreign wives in South Korea. She was quoted as saying that seven Cambodian women recently returned to their country because they could not endure pain from their married life with their Korean husbands. However, the official said the country has yet to uncover systematic exploitation.

The Cambodian move came after the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) disclosed a report that thousands of South Korean men went to the Southeast Asian country to marry Cambodian women through brokers. The report featured the plight of a rising number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who make huge profits.

The report noted that each man would pay up to $20,000 to marry a woman but that a bride's family would collect only about $1,000. The rest of the money would go to the brokers. There are growing concerns that brokered marriages could become a cover for human trafficking. Critics pointed out that marriage brokers have made inroads into Cambodia following a series of deaths, including suicides, of Vietnamese wives.

According to official statistics, about 1,800 Cambodia women married South Korean men in 2007, recording a fourfold increase from a year before. The figure was the third largest after Korean-Chinese women and Vietnamese brides. No doubt underground matchmaking businesses and marriage brokers have women trafficked and forced into marriage, tarnishing the image of South Korea.

A revised interracial marriage brokerage law is to go into effect in June in a bid to crack down on brokers for human trafficking-style methods. And a multicultural family support law is scheduled to take effect in September. It is urgent for the country to establish a firmer system to embrace foreign wives as well as migrant workers as indispensable members of our society. Interracial marriages now account for 10 percent of total marriages. Therefore, we have to roll up our sleeves to ensure human rights and equal opportunity for brides and workers from other countries.

Concerns about exploitation prompts Cambodia to halt processing foreign marriages

Thursday, April 3, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: The Cambodian government has halted processing all documents for marriages of its citizens with foreigners as a new step to minimize the possibility of human trafficking, officials said Thursday.

The suspension was prompted by concerns about the potential for exploitation and trafficking following a recent surge in the number of Cambodian women marrying South Korean men, said Deputy Minister of Women's Affairs You Ay.

She said that as of last Saturday, approval for all paperwork needed for marrying foreigners has been put on hold.

She did not say how long the measure will last, but that it was introduced so that government agencies involved in processing foreign marriage requests "can work to strengthen their procedures."

"We are not denying our people's rights to marry foreigners, nor are we being discriminatory," she said.

"But we have also seen the negative aspects out of such marriages" recently, she said, adding that the suspension affects all foreigners, not just South Koreans.

She was not able to say how many Cambodian nationals have married foreigners.

The South Korean connection made headlines here last month after a report by the Geneva-based International Organization of Migration revealed that thousands of men had come to marry Cambodian women through brokers. Over the past four years, some 2,500 Cambodian women have wedded South Korean men, mostly through the services of underground matchmaking businesses, according to the report.

It said each man would pay up to US$20,000 (€12,790) to marry a woman but that a bride's family would collect only about US$1,000 (€640), while the rest of the money would go to brokers.

Although their marriages appeared to be legal, the government has expressed concerns that brokered marriages could become a cover for human trafficking, in which women are tricked or forced into marriage.

Last month, it shut down two South Korean companies for engaging in the matchmaking business. Interior Minister Sar Kheng denounced the firms' activities as "human trafficking."

"You're bound to have this type of problem when it's a business-oriented, profit-making type of environment," said John McGeoghan, an IOM project coordinator in Cambodia.

He said the suspension "probably is going to upset a lot of people" but is "a good preventive measure" especially "if you want to protect these girls and have more potential for a better marriage."

Cambodia suspends foreign marriages: official [-S. Korea stops issuing residency visas to Cambodian women wishing to marry Korean men]

April 3, 2008
AFP

Cambodia has suspended marriages between foreigners and Cambodians amid concerns over an explosion in the number of brokered unions involving poor, uneducated women, an official said Thursday.

The move follows an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report highlighting the plight of an increasing number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who make large profits.

Some 1,759 marriage visas were issued by South Korea in 2007, up from just 72 in 2004, the report said.

While no systematic exploitation was uncovered, several cases of abuse did raise a red flag with the government, said You Ay, secretary of state with the Women's Affairs Ministry.

"Seven women have returned from South Korea because they could not stand what happened to them there," You Ay told AFP.

"The government has temporarily suspended all (paperwork) for Cambodia women to marry foreigners," she said.

You Ay said the ban, which was approved last week, would be lifted after the government developed a legal framework to address mixed marriages.

"This suspension is to prevent human trafficking through marriage," she said, adding that while the brides often receive as little as 1,000 US US dollars, agencies can make tens of thousands of US dollars on each marriage.

"Cambodia is working to strengthen the laws on marriage," You Ay said.

IOM project coordinator John McGeoghan said that while the report targeted marriages between Cambodians and South Koreans, the potential for problems exists globally and that brokered unions needed to be better regulated.

Three South Korean marriage agencies have been closed down in Cambodia pending the government's decision on marriages to foreigners.

The South Korean embassy in Cambodia earlier this week halted issuing residency visas to Cambodian women wishing to marry Korean men.

Cambodian wives [in Taiwan] need not produce documents: MOI

2007/3/30
TAIPEI, CNA
The China Post (Taiwan)

Cambodian brides of Taiwanese need no longer produce documents proving renunciation of their original nationality to apply for naturalization, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday.

MOI officials said those Cambodian wives who have already applied for ROC citizenship but could not present a certificate of renunciation of original nationality to facilitate the application may now be awarded ROC citizenship based on a proviso carried in the ninth article of country's law of nationality.

Under the ROC law of nationality, the officials said, foreigners must give up their original nationality before they can apply for naturalization. However, some countries, including Cambodia, Thailand and Japan, do not allow their citizens to renounce their nationality.

Nevertheless, 22 Japanese wives so far have been naturalized after their citizenship applications were handled as special cases, in which they had to prove that the responsibility for failing to obtain a certificate of renunciation of original nationality did not rest with them, with the reason for the failure verified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, none of the Cambodian wives in Taiwan have had the chance to apply for naturalization based on the Japanese model because the Foreign Ministry has refused to grant them similar verification after declaring that all Cambodian certificates will be regarded as fake because so many documents from Cambodia are forged.

Nearly 20 Cambodian brides of Taiwanese wept recently at a news conference held at the Legislative Yuan while denouncing the Foreign Ministry for depriving them of the "right" to apply for Taiwan citizenship.

The women protested against unfair treatment compared with that of Japanese women who are married to Taiwanese men.

Currently there are over 2,000 Cambodian wives legitimately living in Taiwan. Seventy-nine of this group, however, have failed to obtain ROC citizenships because their documents of renunciation of original nationality were judged by Foreign Ministry authorities to have been forged.

Foreign wives journey to despair [-Mu Sochua: Extreme poverty is driving more women to marry foreigners]

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

AFP

In impoverished Cambodia, which lacks a professional law enforcement apparatus and an established system for brokered international marriages, women's advocates warn it is easier than elsewhere for prospective brides to fall victim to abuse.

Hopes of a comfortable life abroad end in disaster for many Asian brides, writes Ian Timberlake

Flora Chung thought she had a pretty happy life. She owned a successful fashion business in southern China and had a loving husband from Hong Kong.

The couple met in Guangzhou, her hometown. They hit it off, and were married not long after.

"He was very good to me. He used to come and see me and take me out all the time. When I was pregnant, he would do all the housework at home," said Chung, who sold her business cheaply and moved to Hong Kong to be with her husband - a decision she would later regret. "I was surprised how quickly a person could change."

Asia's wedding bells are increasingly sounding a cross-cultural tone as men and women look outside their own borders for partners.

While some couples find the love, happiness and security they are searching for, others discover that language and cultural barriers threaten their dream of wedded bliss.

In the worst cases, cross-border wives like Chung fall victim to physically abusive partners.

"Many foreign brides are simply regarded as tools for bearing children for their husbands," said Lu Hui-chuan, a social worker with Taiwan's nonprofit Eden Social Welfare Foundation.

In impoverished Cambodia, which lacks a professional law enforcement apparatus and an established system for brokered international marriages, women's advocates warn it is easier than elsewhere for prospective brides to fall victim to abuse.

"I thought my future would be bright after I went to Taiwan as a bride," said Bopha, 18, a rice farmer from Cambodia's rural Svay Rieng province near the border with Vietnam.

Promises of love were enough to persuade her to move to Taiwan and marry a restaurant owner.

She met her husband for the first time when he arrived with a marriage broker at her village hut. The broker told her family that he was a rich bachelor who lived alone in a modern country.

After arriving in Taiwan she discovered she was the man's second wife. He forbade her from leaving the house, where she cared for an elderly woman claiming to be her mother-in-law.

"I was not a wife of a rich Taiwanese man, I was a housekeeper with no salary," Bopha said. "It was hell. I can't imagine how I could live in that situation."

A Taiwanese group and the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre later freed her.

Mu Sochua, formerly Cambodia's minister of women's and veterans' affairs, said extreme poverty is driving more women to marry foreigners.

"She doesn't know clearly about the groom's background and he can be any size or age - just as long as he whisks her to live and work in the second country," Mu Sochua said.

Taiwan has become one of Asia's major destinations for foreign spouses. Most come from China and its territories, a fact which gives Taiwan's cross-cultural marriages the added burden of being tied into the island's delicate politics. Wives from the mainland complain of discrimination because of the hostility between Taipei and Beijing. The island has received more than 380,000 foreign spouses over the past 20 years, more than 65 percent of them from Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland, according to interior ministry figures.

According to Taiwan law, women from China are eligible to apply for local identity cards only after they stay for a minimum of eight years, compared with three years for women from other countries. "I don't know why we women from the mainland are being treated in such an unfair way. Also because of my accent, I was regarded as a second-class citizen. The feeling is uncomfortable," said Cui Xiaoling, a native of central China who married a Taiwanese six years ago.

Taiwan's immigration authorities say the strict law is aimed at deterring rampant false marriages, largely for purposes of prostitution.

But mainland brides are not the only ones who have trouble adjusting to life in Taiwan.

In a disturbing case, Taipei prosecutors said Friday they would seek the death penalty for a man who conspired with his brother to murder the latter's Vietnamese wife to claim on her insurance policy. Lee Tai-an and Lee Shuang-chuan were suspected of sabotaging rail tracks in March last year to cause the derailment of a train that Shuang- chuan's wife, Chen Hong-chen, was on. While she was in hospital recovering from the accident, her husband murdered her with a injection of snake poison, the prosecutors said.

They said that five years earlier, Lee Shuang- chuan - who committed suicide within days of the train crash - had lost his second wife, also a Vietnamese, after she was allegedly bitten by a snake. He claimed US$161,000 (HK$1.26 million) in insurance.

Official figures say 19.8 percent of Taiwan's foreign spouses are from Vietnam. Another 6.8 percent come from Indonesia, 2.46 percent from Thailand, 1.59 percent from the Philippines and 1.18 percent from Cambodia.

There is also strong demand for Vietnamese and Cambodian brides in Singapore, said Martin Wong, Singapore managing director for Mr Cupid International Matchmakers, one of many agencies that help arrange foreign brides for bachelors in the wealthy, majority ethnic-Chinese city state.

To boost demand for women from Fujian province, the agency offered a special Lunar New Year discount for grooms who committed to marry a Fujianese woman, Wong said.

In many cases, men looking for foreign brides have had no luck attracting a mate at home.

While many of Asia's foreign brides have Asian husbands, a survey by Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Board found German and Swiss men were among the top of the list of foreigners marrying women from the kingdom's poor northeastern Issan farming region.

The state-run think-tank found that Issan women account for almost half of the kingdom's international marriages. It said the women sought foreign husbands because Thai women believe the foreign men will take care of their families, giving them big houses and luxury items.

Thai women believe that Thai men, on the other hand, drink and gamble too much and do not care for their families, the survey found.

Gambling helped spell the end of Chung's marriage in Hong Kong. After their initial happiness together, her husband became a gambling addict, an alcoholic and kept mistresses in China. He could not hold onto regular work, and the financial strain forced Chung to work three jobs. She said they did not make enough money, and yet, he did not like the fact that she earned more than him.

"His ego was hurt and he started releasing his anger on me," Chung said, wiping away tears.

For the next 10 years, he would hit her with anything he could get his hands on.

"One time we had an argument. He wanted us to pack our things in 15 minutes and leave. He told us, `If you don't, I'll stab you to death."' That was seven years ago, the last time she saw him.

Margaret Wong, executive director of Harmony House, a women's shelter, said Chung's case is typical among cross-cultural marriages in Hong Kong. Official figures point to an alarming rise in domestic violence last year, when cases surged 80 percent over the previous year to reach 4,700.

Cambodian women stranded in Taiwan

Cambodian women married to Taiwanese men protest outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei yesterday. The group accused the ministry of discriminating against Cambodians trying to obtain Taiwanese citizenship. (PHOTO; CHENG HSUEH-YUNG, TAIPEI TIMES)

Sunday, Mar 04, 2007
Women's group accuses MOFA of discrimination

RECOGNITION: Just like Japanese, Cambodians cannot obtain Taiwanese citizenship without abandoning their citizenship by birth, which their country will not allow

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Taipei Times (Taiwan)

A group of Cambodian women who are married to Taiwanese yesterday accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of discrimination against them on the issue of obtaining Taiwanese citizenship.

Approximately 2,800 Cambodian women who are married to Taiwanese men are not able to become Taiwanese citizens despite having families and years of residency in Taiwan, the Transnational Sisters' Association, an organization that aims to protect foreign spouses' rights, said.

The Nationality Law requires that foreign nationals submit a certificate of renunciation of nationality (CRN) issued by their country of origin before they can obtain Taiwanese citizenship.

However, the task is impossible for Cambodians.

"Cambodia doesn't recognize Taiwan and its government refuses to issue such certificates to Cambodians who wish to obtain Taiwanese citizenship," Shawn Wu, secretary-general of the group, told the press conference.

In some cases when certificates were issued, they were rejected by the ministry because of the remark "valid only for the People's Republic of China on the documents," Wu said. "How do we live and work here [in Taiwan] without a national identity card?"

"I'm afraid that I cannot come back if I go back to Cambodia to visit," said I Say Hun, a Cambodian woman who has been married to her Taiwanese husband for six years.

Cambodia is not the only country that refuses to issue CRNs to national wishing to become Taiwanese citizens.

Japan is another such country, also because of its one-China policy.

"But they have found a way around it," Wu said, adding that "the ministry cannot discriminate against Cambodians."

However, MOFA rebutted the accusation.

"It's really the marriage certificates rather than CRNs that cause the problem," MOFA deputy spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh said during a telephone interview with the Taipei Times.

Yeh explained that most Cambodian nationals who applied for Taiwanese citizenship had fake marriage certificates.

"With fake marriage certificates, the Cambodian government couldn't issue them CRNs and Taiwan couldn't grant them citizenship," she said.

In fact, MOFA granted them residency during a period of time regardless of the authenticity of their documents, Yeh said. "But granting citizenship is a whole other issue."

Yeh admitted that Japan also adheres to the one-China policy and wouldn't issue CRNs to its nationals wishing to obtain Taiwanese citizenship.

"But the situation is different," she said.

"First of all, Japanese who married Taiwanese all had authentic marriage certificates, certified by their government," she said.

"Second, the Japanese government would issue written documents to its national requesting CRNs stating that they [the Japanese government] cannot do so because of such and such reason," Yeh said.

Divorce leaves some Vietnamese women broken-hearted and stateless

14 Feb 2007

HO CHI MINH CITY, Viet Nam, February 14 (UNHCR) – With the first words Phuong* utters about her failed marriage, the tears begin to fall.

"They tricked me, they cheated me," the 28-year-old Vietnamese woman says of her ex-husband and the marriage broker who sold her the dream of a route out of poverty by marrying a stranger from Taiwan. Her husband, she sobs, turned out to be a drug addict who beat her regularly.

Now back in Viet Nam with her 10-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son from the marriage, Phuong can consider herself one of the lucky ones. She and her children at least retained their Vietnamese citizenship.

Thousands of poor Vietnamese women who have married Taiwanese men over the last 10 years, only to see their dreams of an easy life crumble, have discovered when they come back to their homeland that they, and often their children, are stateless.

"My husband asked me to give up Vietnamese citizenship, but my family did not allow me to give it up," says Phuong, now grateful that they saved her from the limbo so many other women find themselves in. Between 1995 and 2002, more than 55,000 Vietnamese women married foreigners, with the figure approaching 13,000 in 2002 alone, according to Viet Nam Ministry of Justice statistics.

Precisely 86 percent of such marriages, according to a survey done by the Viet Nam Women's Union of Ho Chi Minh City, were contracted for economic reasons by Vietnamese women who dreamed of a better life abroad.

The bridegrooms – mainly from Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore – are often older, poor workers who are unable to attract a woman or afford an elaborate wedding in their own prosperous countries.

Legal problems arise when the wife applies for naturalisation in her husband's country. In Taiwan, the process requires her to first renounce Vietnamese citizenship; if the marriage fails before she gets foreign citizenship, she ends up stateless.

Thousands of the marriages have failed, leaving, by government estimates, at least 3,000 Vietnamese women stateless. "For every stateless woman, and often for her children, this limbo is a tragedy," says Hasim Utkan, the Bangkok-based regional representative for UNHCR.

Without citizenship, they are adrift in their own country, not entitled to the vital family book identity document that rules dealings between citizens and government institutions in this country. They lose the very right to have rights – to work legally or to get social assistance. Their children, considered foreigners, are often excluded from state schools; stateless mothers face high tuition bills to send them to private schools.

"UNHCR is increasingly dedicated to trying to prevent and resolve statelessness around the world, and it is a particular concern of mine," said Utkan. "We are ready to help the Vietnamese government find ways to keep these women from becoming stateless. We are glad to see that this issue is being handled by the government with so much transparency, and are pleased that we are able to discuss the issue openly with the government."

UNHCR is also working with the government of Viet Nam to find a way to grant citizenship to some 9,800 people who escaped Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s by fleeing to Viet Nam, where they remain today, now well integrated into the life of their communities, but stateless.

US Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey, on a visit to Viet Nam and Cambodia earlier this month, urged the two countries to find a solution for these people who, she said, "can't own land, can't legally marry, have no citizenship rights [in Viet Nam]."

The stateless former economic brides often have no idea how to get their citizenship restored, and fall prey to the same type of unscrupulous intermediaries who sold them into marriage in the first place. One 36-year-old woman said a lawyer asked her for US$5,000 – a huge sum here – to process her papers to get her citizenship restored.

Justice department authorities in Ho Chi Minh City say they are working hard to restore citizenship to stateless women whenever they hear of such cases.

Nguyen Thi Diem Chi, a tall, self-assured 33-year-old, met her Taiwanese businessman husband when she worked for him as an interpreter in Ho Chi Minh City. She said her husband asked her to give up her Vietnamese citizenship, but then blocked her efforts to become naturalised in Taiwan. She says they broke up because "we were incompatible – my husband couldn't understand me."

Now back home with her two children – to whom she still speaks Chinese – she is building prosperity on her own. She works as the manager of a seafood restaurant and owns her own house. But it's a struggle without citizenship.

"It's difficult because I don't have an ID card or a family book, but I am trying to get my Vietnamese citizenship back and I think I am about to get it," she says. "Then life will be better."

*Name changed for protection reasons

By Kitty McKinsey
In Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam