Informal migration for labor

The Foreign Ministry last Thursday secured the release of 23 Cambodians who had been arrested and detained last month for overstaying their visas and working illegally in Malaysia. Another 16 Cambodians detained by Thai authorities for lacking passports were released as well. ...

A report published last week by the UN Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT) says the main cause of human trafficking from Cambodia to China was a lack of jobs and low wages, forcing many young women to look at opportunities abroad. ...

Ten migrant workers, including four women, were repatriated to Cambodia this week after being arrested and imprisoned in Malaysia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. They join six others who were also repatriated from a Malaysian prison earlier this month. The ministry issued a statement ...

The agency tasked with investigating abuse by Malaysia’s security forces said that claims of fatal abuse against foreign maids—including Cambodians—at a detention center were untrue, though it said the center where the abuse allegedly occurred was in urgent need of attention. ...

Since the start of the year, department authorities at the Ministry of Interior have arrested more than 10,000 illegal workers, with the bulk of them being construction workers. However, industry experts and investors are split on the opinions that the arrest will impinge on the ...

Nearly 30 Cambodians detained in Thailand since early July were released last week, though four remain in detention, an official at the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok said. The migrant workers – 20 women and 14 men – were arrested on July 7 and taken to a ...

An inspection at the Sino Great Wall International Engineering’s building site in Phnom Penh yesterday found nearly 200 Chinese workers without work permits, according to an immigration official, though a spokesman for the project’s developer said the employees’ paperwork was in the pipeline. ...

Five Vietnamese nationals who were renting a home from the local immigration department chief were arrested on Friday for conducting illegal mining operations in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district. ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn has ordered Cambodian Embassy staff in Malaysia to find out whether more nationals are being held in any of the country’s detention facilities after 18 Cambodians were released from a prison in Kuala Lumpur last week. ...

Cambodian embassy officials in Thailand are now assisting migrant workers in Thai prisons by providing lawyers for them. Embassy officials also announced they are looking for relatives of a Cambodian man who died in Thailand late last month to take his body, which is being ...

The abuse of Cambodians employed in Thailand’s fishing industry was raised yesterday in a letter from the government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) to their Thai counterparts, calling for improved monitoring of the much criticized and troubled industry. ...

A woman who worked as a maid in Malaysia was repatriated to Cambodia late last week after years of abuse at the hands of her employers, including a forced marriage. ...

Five Cambodian workers imprisoned in a Malaysian jail were repatriated yesterday, with 13 more expected to make their way back to the Kingdom in the coming days. All 18 were jailed for allegedly lacking the proper work permits and all had been brought to Malaysia by ...

Labor Minister Ith Samheng asked the new Australian ambassador yesterday if her country could take in seasonal workers from Cambodia, prompting disappointment from a number of civil society groups hoping the government would make more of an effort to create jobs here. ...

Nearly 26,000 undocumented Cambodian workers were deported by Thai authorities through border checkpoints, primarily Poipet and other secondary border crossings in Banteay Meanchey province, in the first six months of this year, an official said. ...

A leading opposition lawmaker has urged the government to make better use of skilled migrant labor returning from overseas in a bid to encourage more Cambodians to stay in the country. ...

The Thai Labor Ministry yesterday said it would refuse to extend the July 29 deadline for migrant workers to register themselves, stating they will arrest workers who have not registered from next month. ...

Keo Rotha was sitting in his small brick house in a quiet village in Pursat province, surrounded by coconut trees and a bamboo fence, looking at his old phone while waiting for a call to tell him the results of the court case he and ...

Six Cambodian workers were rescued from Malaysia and arrived home safely late last weekend after being cheated by brokers, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. ...

Sixty illegal Vietnamese and Chinese laborers were arrested in Kampot province yesterday. ...

Recruiters say it could be 2017 by the time Cambodia starts sending maids to Malaysia through legal channels again, despite Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s public endorsement of a tentative deal last week. ...

Malaysia is primed to accept an influx of Cambodian workers after Prime Minister Hun Sen entreated his Malay counterpart to receive more Cambodians during an official visit to Malaysia late last week. ...

In an attempt to protect the interests and safety of Cambodian maids who travel to Malaysia, the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia National Association of Employment Agencies (PIKAP) last week, according to officials. ...

The Cambodian government has agreed to a request from the Thai Labor Ministry to temporarily block migrant workers from traveling to Thailand for the next four months as it conducts a census into migrants in the country, according to a statement released on Thursday.   ...