Government
National government
Ministry of Labor knights Australian industrial commissioner
The Arbitration Council says the Ministry of Labor has knighted an Australian industrial commissioner for his long period of work as an honorary advisor to the council. In a statement posted on its website Friday, the council said Labour and Vocational Training Minister Ith Samheng awarded ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=OTZiMjJhNTM1NzQ
City Hall, aid groups agree to conduct census of street people
A week after it called off a failed sweep of the city’s vagrants, City Hall held a meeting with four NGOs and district authorities Friday in which they agreed to form a joint committee to conduct a census of street sellers and beggars, according to ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-aid-groups-agree-to-conduct-census-of-street-people-62065/
Illegal workers arrested, face Thai court
Thai authorities have arrested and are preparing to try 13 Cambodian migrant workers who were allegedly caught with fake stamps on their work papers as they tried to return home, Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong confirmed on Friday. The government also announced a plan to subsidize ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-workers-arrested-face-trial-in-thailand-62059/
Life-saving diabetes program in limbo as state funds fall through
Every week, dozens of diabetics gather at a home in the Boeng Kak lake neighborhood to have their weight, blood sugar levels and blood pressure checked. They are among 12,000 impoverished people across the country taking part in the NGO MoPoTsyo’s peer support program, which allows ...
Holly Robertson and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/life-saving-diabetes-program-in-limbo-as-govt-funds%E2%80%88fall-through-62063/
UN Rights Envoy meets with interior minister, opposition leader
Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Friday met with visiting U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi, who spent the first week of his 11th mission to Cambodia following up on electoral, labor and legislative reform. The special rapporteur later met with CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha, who ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-rights-envoy-meets-with-interior-minister-opposition-leader-62061/
New business registrations in Cambodia rise 55 pct in 5 months
Cambodia’s Ministry of Commerce said Friday that it has granted operating licenses to 1,676 new firms in the first five months of 2014, up 55 percent as compared with the 1,084 companies for the same period last year. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2014-06/20/c_133424091.htm
Nearly all illegal Cambodian migrants working in Thailand return home: labor minister
Cambodian Minister of Labor Ith Samheng said Friday that nearly all illegal Cambodian migrant laborers working in Thailand have returned home in fears of a junta’s crackdown on illegal foreign workers. Major Gen. Pich Vanna, chief of Cambodian-Thai Border Relation Affairs Office, said the Thai ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/20/c_133424234.htm
‘One-stop office’ to help migrants at border
Following an exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers from Thailand in the past two weeks, the junta has urged Cambodia to expedite planned border offices that will facilitate legal labour migration. Responding to that request, Cambodia announced yesterday that the first “one-stop service office” would ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98one-stop-office%E2%80%99-help-migrants-border
Workers take contract demands to ministry
About 200 garment workers marched from Phnom Penh’s Wincam garment factory to the Ministry of Labor on Thursday to press their demands for short-term contracts and better benefits. The Korean-owned factory’s 800-plus workers have been protesting since June 11 to demand that the factory change their ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-take-contract-demands-to-ministry-61956/
UN envoy meets employers over labor unrest
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi met with representatives of the country’s businesses and employers Thursday for talks that focused on the protection of workers’ rights and measures that can be taken to ensure that strained industrial relations do not once again erupt into violence. In ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-meets-employers-over-labor-unrest-61951/
Police end Prey Lang event
Police in Kampong Thom province shut down a forest-protection training session yesterday, citing fears that it was encouraging residents to protest against logging in Prey Lang, activists and residents have said. Sar Mory, a deputy of the Cambodian Youth Network (CYN), said that his group organised ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/police-end-prey-lang-event
Cambodia’s parliament OKs dam compensation plan
Cambodia’s energy minister allayed concerns in parliament over inadequate compensation offered to villagers who face relocation for a proposed China-backed dam on a Mekong River tributary, saying the government has allocated to villagers more than four times the area taken over for the project. Minister of ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-06192014195419.html
Activists call for transparency at Buddhist Institute
The activist Independent Monk Network has called on the Ministry of Cult and Religion to release paperwork proving that an agreement it struck with NagaCorp to help construct an electricity substation at Phnom Penh’s Buddhist Institute does not involve the selling of any of the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/activists-call-transparency-buddhist-institute
Siem Reap land protest draws crowd of 1,000
In a rare display of solidarity outside of Phnom Penh, more than 1,000 people with varied land-related grievances across Siem Reap province gathered in front of the provincial governor’s office on Tuesday to demand action, and left with a promise from the governor to help. Activist ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/siem-reap-land-protest-draws-crowd-of-1000-61831/
Prey Speu tales conflict
Following last week’s street sweep, children as young as 7 years old were kept in Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre, eyewitnesses, staff and those targeted by the initiative have told the Post, directly contradicting government denials offered earlier this week. Standing at the centre’s ...
Alice Cuddy and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/prey-speu-tales-conflict
At border, gov’t bill mounts
The financial burden inflicted by hundreds of thousands of returning Cambodian migrant workers has already reached $5 million in government-mobilised emergency services alone, according to official estimates. In less than two weeks, nearly 200,000 mostly undocumented Cambodian migrants have spilled through the Thai-Cambodia border, fleeing what ...
May Titthara and Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/border-gov%E2%80%99t-bill-mounts
Solo act taking its toll
It was difficult enough for Savoeurn Dimang when, until a month ago, he was one of just three teachers running the local primary school in Kors Kralor district’s Samrong Leu village. But now, with one teacher having left for South Korea and the other bowing out ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/solo-act-taking-its-toll
Better protection entertained
Workers in an industry where obnoxious, drunk customers and 12-hour shifts are common could gain legal safeguards if a subdecree brought before a Ministry of Labour committee yesterday passes into law. The set of prakases for entertainment workers – which appeared before the Labour Advisory Committee ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/better-protection-entertained
Ad spending sees hike in budget for tourism
The Cambodian government has budgeted $3.5 million for tourism-related advertising and promotions in 2014, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said yesterday. “This year the budget has reached $3.5 million dollars, half of the total budget for the ministry as we will host PATA Travel Mart 2014,” ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ad-spending-sees-hike-budget-tourism
Homeless ‘went to Prey Speu’
With a number of homeless, beggars and street sellers who were rounded up in caged vans last week still unaccounted for, several of those targeted by the street sweep claimed yesterday that they had been held in Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre. Homeless ...
Sen David and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/homeless-%E2%80%98went-prey-speu%E2%80%99
Bank pays out after factory boss ‘flees’
Workers at a garment factory that closed without warning last week received payment yesterday for nearly a month and a half of work, but some are still waiting for bonuses owed to them. More than 400 workers lined up at the Canadia Industrial Park gates, behind ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bank-pays-out-after-factory-boss-%E2%80%98flees%E2%80%99
Energy Minister to be questioned in parliament over Se San 2 dam construction
Energy Minister Suy Sem will answer in the National Assembly (NA) on Thursday this week over the construction plan of Se San 2 dam in Stung Treng province, according to a press statement by the General Secretariat of the National Assembly. ...
The Cambodia Herald New Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ZDNlZWE0MjhjNjQ
Legal Cambodians may return, says Thailand
Thai officials said Tuesday they will take back Cambodian workers who re-enter the country legally. The statement follows a mass exodus in recent weeks of tens of thousands of Cambodians amid rumors of a crackdown on undocumented workers. Koy Kuong, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry, told ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voanews.com/content/thailand-says-legal-cambodian-workers-can-return/1939085.html
Cambodia agrees to help Thailand clarify labor policy
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed to the Cambodian Ambassador to Thailand that no harsh measures are being taken against Cambodian workers while the latter has promised to help Thailand clear up the rumor. ...
National News Bureau of Thailand
http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNSOC5706170010018