Population and censuses

During negotiations yesterday, allegedly defrauded workers in Kampong Thom and a recruitment agency hammered out a deal that saw limited compensation delivered to the aggrieved would-be migrants. ...

A woman lured into marriage in China and a group of men forced to work on a Thai fishing boat in Indonesia are the latest Cambodians rescued after being trafficked abroad. ...

Nearly two-thirds of surveyed survivors of human trafficking in Southeast Asia show symptoms of depression, while another 40 per cent suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a new study. ...

The Ministry of Interior on Wednesday said it was standing by its decision to not renew the visa of outspoken environmental activist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson in the face of mounting pressure from fellow activists, NGOs, unions, students and monks—even opposition leader Sam Rainsy—to reverse course. ...

Responding to parliament’s order to investigate allegations against a recruitment agency with a record of mistreating its workers, the Ministry of Labour dispatched a team today to meet with a group of defrauded labourers. ...

A Montagnard asylum seeker who was arrested and deported earlier this month along with his wife and three children has returned to a heavily guarded home after being detained and interrogated for 12 days by Vietnamese authorities. ...

The South Korean government will double the number of Cambodian migrant workers who are granted permits to take up employment in the country’s manufacturing, construction and agriculture sectors each year, officials said on Monday. ...

Three Montagnards, including a 10-year-old girl, arrived yesterday morning at the government’s Refugee Department in Phnom Penh to process their asylum claims. ...

Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Thursday warned officials processing work permits for foreign workers to adhere strictly to all the relevant rules and regulations or risk an unwanted visit from the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). The government has recently started enforcing a longstanding but largely ignored ...

Nine more Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri on Tuesday, bringing the total number hiding in the province’s O’Yadaw district to 32, a police official said Wednesday. ...

Days after the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced it would help resettle Australia’s refugees currently being held on the Pacific island nation of Nauru in Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday acknowledged criticism of the deal at home and abroad. ...

Thailand has still not decided what will happen to the 738,000 Cambodian migrant workers currently living in the country on temporary work permits when those documents expire at the end of March, an official from the Thai Labor Ministry said Wednesday. ...

Though they live in floating houses moored to the banks of the Tonle Sap river, few of the nearly 2,500 ethnic Vietnamese villagers here can truly call Cambodia home. Thousands built floating homes on the Tonle Sap, a cheaper and more attainable alternative to settling ...

Three Cambodian men who were arrested in Thailand more than a year ago after venturing across the border to illegally log rosewood were on Monday released from prison and sent back home, border officials said. You Sothearith, chief of the immigration police at the checkpoint, ...

A rights group has asked the Cambodian government to stop harassing Christian Montagnards from Vietnam who are seeking refugee status in the country following the arrest of a family of five Montagnards in a northeastern province. ...

Thai officials sent 64 migrant workers and seven monks back to Cambodia yesterday, saying the Cambodia nationals had entered the country without proper authorisation. ...

Rights group Adhoc on Tuesday urged the government to work harder to help Cambodian domestic workers still suffering abuse from their employers in Malaysia or from the Cambodian recruitment agencies that sent them there, including 63 women the organization says have effectively disappeared. At a press ...

The Interior Ministry’s immigration department will on Wednesday report the findings of a nationwide census of foreigners that began in August, an immigration official said Monday. ...

A government delegation that traveled to the South Pacific island nation of Nauru last week to study the possibility of resettling in Cambodia some of the refugees Australia is currently holding there will return to Phnom Penh on Monday, a government official said. ...

On Friday, 13 Cambodians were repatriated after months of gruelling work trapped aboard Malaysian fishing trawlers, according to rights groups that helped with the returns. ...

Nine Vietnamese nationals found to be living in Cambodia illegally were arrested at furniture-making workshops in Battambang City on Tuesday as the national immigration census nears its end, a police official said Wednesday. ...

The shooting of a Cambodian woman by Thai soldiers was left off the agenda during recent talks between Cambodia and Thailand’s prime ministers, which instead focused on issuing migrants passports and the ownership of ancient treasures. Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart General Prayuth ...

Cambodia made a rare show of defending its migrant workforce in South Korea on Friday, calling attention to a labour scheme that has come under fire for perpetuating exploitation and abuse. During meetings with the outgoing South Korean ambassador, president of the National Assembly Heng Samrin ...

A trafficked Cambodian woman was taken into Malaysian immigration police custody after a raid on karaoke bars on Sunday night, Cambodian embassy officials confirmed yesterday. ...