The appointment of General Sok Phal to head the Interior Ministry’s newly formed department to monitor migrant workers has raised concerns over his close familial connection to a labor recruitment industry fraught with human rights abuses. Gen. Phal’s sister, Ung Seang Rithy, is the owner of ...

As several hundred garment workers from the SL Garment factory pelted police with rocks during a protest near the Stung Meanchey pagoda in November, Men Sok Sambath, a 14-year-old scrap collector, decided to join the crowd. “I saw other people throwing rocks at the [police] truck, ...

Among the exotic wildlife that prowls Cambodia’s forests are large furry creatures that may be far more familiar to European and North American visitors than the ever-dwindling populations of large cats and beastly elephants. The Kingdom’s bears climb trees and devour honey just like their ...

Some of the hundreds of families losing land and community forest to Vietnamese-owned rubber plantations in Cambodia’s northeast will this week file a complaint with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) over the investment it has made in the plantations’ parent company. Eang Vuthy, executive director of ...

Seven million young lobsters had been released into Cambodia’s rivers and Tonle Sap Lake this year in an effort to build the nation’s fish and shellfish stocks, officials said yesterday. Nao Thouk, general director of the Fisheries Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said, about ...

The State Department on Tuesday cited abuses in Thailand’s huge fishing industry as part of an annual worldwide report on Trafficking in Persons. The report noted that men from Cambodia and Myanmar, also known as Burma, are trafficked aboard Thai ships and forced to work ...

The Prey Lang community patrol network faced threats from illegal loggers after reporting the loggers’ names to authorities, along with the discovery of more than 120 cubic metres of illegally felled timber and seven chainsaws, a patrol representative said yesterday. Chheang Vuthy, a community representative from Kampong ...

Unions and labour rights groups have spent recent months unashamedly drilling home a stark reminder: Cambodia’s minimum garment wage, at $61 per month, compares poorly with those in Thailand – where workers earn more than $200 a month – and Vietnam, which has a base ...

The opposition CNRP said Thursday it is forging ahead with plans to hold a three-day demonstration, which the party has dubbed a “camp-in,” despite a letter from the Ministry of Interior that says the protests can only go on for one day. The Interior Ministry letter, ...

In one corner of the cavernous training centre, a woman patiently strips the baby blue sheets off a queen-size bed, removing the flower-patterned pillowcases and folding them neatly to one side. Under the watchful eye of an instructor, she then remakes the bed, carefully fluffing the ...

Ten days ago, Loun Somaly, 33, left his house to deliver a deposit to the glass workers he hired to replace a window on his rickety sheet metal-panelled house. Ly Sophal, Somaly’s tenacious three-year-old son, followed him outside, asking if he could join. But with floodwater ...

Piles of garbage festered on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday as hundreds of workers employed by the city’s refuse collection company, Cintri, continued to strike for higher wages and better working conditions. At the company’s truck depot in Dangkao district Tuesday morning, more than ...

Open Cambodia A Mozilla/Aspiration Conference Open Web, Open Source, Open Knowledge 16-17 September 2011 Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh Friday 16 September 8:00-8:30 Registration – Grand Mekong Hall, First Floor 8:30-10:15 Interactive Plenary 10:15-10:30 Coffee Break 10:30-12:00 Agenda Crowdsourcing: Session Development 12:00-1:00 Lunch – Provided at the Sun Café Restaurant, Ground Floor, Sunway Hotel 1:00-3:00 Break-Out I – Framing Sessions: ...

The president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions said yesterday that he would defy a municipal order banning employees from June Textile Factory from marching to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house to seek resolution in a labour dispute. According to a report from a City ...

CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin was joined by his wife as they broke ground on the controversial project taking place at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak Lake. They unveiled the architectural renderings of the towers to be built on what used to be the site of ...

Cambodia’s economic growth is expected to reach 8.7 percent this year as a result of the growth within the garment sector and the increased prices for agricultural products. The Economic Institute of Cambodia (EIC) has said that the garment industry, including the manufacturing of shoes, ...

Cambodia must further integrate with its East Asian neighbours for future economic development, said Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon. The financial crisis highlighted the need to diversify production, and Asia’s markets are ripe for increased Cambodian exports, he said. Speaking at the 7th ...

Phnom Penh City Hall yesterday warned Angkor Beer promoters to protest peacefully until a resolution could be reached on their pay claims, a union representative said. Protests held by the Angkor Beer promoters turned violent on Tuesday evening, with one promoter hospitalized after protestors clashed ...

Phnom Penh City Hall has estimated it could receive about $6 million in revenue next year from property tax collection, which started recently. City Hall released some tax calculation methods on its website last week and said that “based on the estimation of the technical ...

More than 300 striking workers at Jie Wei garment factory in the capital’s Dangkor district will return to work today after successful negotiations yesterday settled a labour dispute that led to a three-day strike last week. Factory management agreed to nine of the 11 demands ...