Population and censuses

Sixty-eight Khmer Krom families in Takeo province allege they are being forcibly evicted, charged by fishery authorities with illegally occupying a nature preserve. Yesterday, three representatives from the Borei Choslar district, Sangkum Meanchey village, were summonsed to court. ...

The government today will begin strict inspections of agencies that recruit workers to send overseas, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Tuesday. The labor minister has previously threatened to suspend or revoke the licenses of agencies that do not comply with labor laws. Speaking at a workshop ...

It took three illegal border crossings, several bribed officials and six months in an overcrowded detention centre before Mohammed Ibrahim* finally arrived in Cambodia. Four years later, the ethnic Rohingya, a victim of violence and oppression in strife-torn Rakhine state in Myanmar’s west, is one of ...

Government officials have got to work parsing a controversial request that Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the region with a spotty record handling refugees, take some of Australia’s asylum seekers. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop made the request to Prime Minister Hun Sen ...

The Ministry of Labor said Wednesday that the government has agreed on a final draft of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia regarding sending Cambodian maids to work there, but that no timeframe for the signing of the agreement has been set. Following reports of ...

Cambodia’s floating villages have adapted to the ebb and flow of Southeast Asia’s largest lake for generations, but modernisation and a scarcity of fish are now threatening their traditional way of life. Houses, schools, hairdressers and even dentists — entire communities bob around on the Tonle ...

Seven Cambodians are now believed to have been killed and 14 injured by a falling beam at a construction site in Thailand on Tuesday, Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said yesterday. “Cambodian embassy officials in Bangkok are working with the Thai police to find out the ...

Two Cambodian nationals are among those reported dead following the collapse of a beam at a construction site yesterday on the outskirts of Bangkok. The death toll stood at 11 as of 4pm yesterday, while another 17 were reported injured. A concrete beam fell down at the ...

Cambodia said Thursday that Thai soldiers shot and killed 69 Cambodians who were claimed to illegally cross the border between the two countries last year, up from 45 a year earlier. ...

Although human-trafficking cases dealt with by the Ministry of Interior decreased significantly in 2013, suggesting progress was being made in tackling the crime, trafficking in persons continues to be a major challenge for the government, the ministry said in its annual report on Tuesday. According to ...

Sixty-nine Cambodians were shot dead by Thai soldiers while crossing the border illegally last year, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said on Tuesday at the launch of its annual report. “Cambodians were shot dead by Thai soldiers in 55 [incidents] last year in which ...

The opposition leader Sam Rainsy called on South Korea to protect the rights of Cambodian people during his visit earlier this month. Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Byung-Chul Hyun, said in a letter to Sam Rainsy that “I share your concerns for ...

Cambodian labourers may soon be recruited to construction sites in the United Arab Emirates, where conditions are described as “tragic” by human rights groups. The Lebanon-based company that would hire the workers under the prospective scheme, Agostine & Raphael Group, is run by Middle Eastern tycoon ...

Fewer cases of abuse of migrants were recorded last year than in 2012, but that doesn’t mean the issue is any less serious, a forum held by rights group Adhoc was told yesterday. Torture, a lack of food, and physical and sexual abuse are just some ...

Opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy is to meet with Cambodian migrant workers during a two-day trip to South Korea later this week, at the end of a European tour that has included stops in Geneva, Brussels and Paris. “He will be visiting [South] Korea to meet ...

The Ministry of Interior has suspended the operation of an orphanage after it found that its director had colluded with a recruitment agency to cheat migrant workers out of an alleged $600,000, officials said Tuesday. “The Ministry of Interior temporarily suspends all activities of Our Friends ...

Two sisters from Preah Vihear’s Kulen district hired to work in Malaysia as maids by Mey Yorn Services have not been heard from in more than two years, their mother said yesterday. Sok Noun, 45, hasn’t spoken to her daughters Bien Phok, 17, and Bien Phoun, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday announced that Prach Chan is appointed as the Governor of newly-created Tbong Khmom province which was split from Kampong Cham, the biggest province of Cambodia. ...

Many Cambodian women arrive in South Korea or China for marriage, only to find themselves being chosen as mistresses, say labour rights activists. While young Cambodian men, who travel to Thailand to work on fishing boats, often fall prey to drug abuse. Loss of land, debt, ...

A village of 212 hectares in Battambang’s Bavel district has nearly become a ghost town after an alleged land grab by three tycoons has forced hundreds to find work abroad, locals and a rights group said yesterday. ...

Cambodia is changing fast. Over the past decade, the capital city, Phnom Penh has expanded exponentially: its bodies of water have been filled in and green spaces diminished. Rural to urban migration has changed the shape of the countryside. Great shifts are under way and ...

Cambodia had dispatched some 22, 300 laborers overseas in 2013, down 36 percent from 34,800 a year earlier, figures from the Ministry of Labor showed Monday. The country sent 13,170 workers to Thailand last year, down 50 percent year-on-year; 8,820 to South Korea, up 8 ...

The Ministry of Labor hopes that a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will see Cambodia resume sending domestic workers to Malaysia by February, but negotiations on the document have stalled after Malaysia recently rejected 90 percent of proposed provisions to protect workers’ rights. Most strikingly, Malaysia ...

Local human rights group Adhoc has called on the government to investigate the alleged detention and torture of a Cambodian woman at a Bangkok casino where she was employed. In a statement released Friday, Adhoc said the government must push for a “full investigation” into the ...