Migration

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 ...

Announcing that more than 160,000 immigrants are living in Cambodia without proper documentation, the Interior Ministry on Friday said it would give the majority of the group an opportunity to stay in the country, while the opposition pushed for a blanket deportation. ...

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 Australian government has retained a second agency to assist in the resettlement of refugees in Cambodia, despite scant interest from the people it detains on Nauru and for whom the offer stands. ...

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. ...

In the wake of startling deportation numbers released by the general department of immigration last week showing that more than 85 percent of those deported since 2014 were Vietnamese, the government in Hanoi has asked Cambodia to ensure that the rights of those being sent ...

Australian Ambassador Angela Corcoran and Cambodian Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn reaffirmed their two countries’ commitment to a controversial and unpopular refugee resettlement deal they struck in 2014, a spokesman for the minister said on Thursday. ...

The new Australian ambassador to Cambodia praised the Kingdom yesterday for taking in refugees from the island nation of Nauru, where Australia has controversially held refugees against their will in appalling living conditions in an effort to stop others from seeking asylum there. ...

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. ...

Thirty-two Vietnamese nationals were arrested during raids by immigration police in Phnom Penh’s Toul Kork district yesterday morning, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Keo Vanthorn.   ...

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. ...

Immigration officials say they will introduce a new visa category for foreign retirees as soon as Monday—the latest push in a campaign to encourage more expatriates to settle in Cambodia. ...

Up to 750,000 Vietnamese people are believed to be living in Cambodia, about 5 percent of the country’s population, but no one knows for sure. They are almost universally stateless. Few qualify for Cambodian citizenship. ...

The Ministry of Interior’s department of immigration temporarily arrested 31 foreign nationals, including one Frenchman, on suspicion of staying in the Kingdom illegally in raids of two businesses in the capital yesterday. ...

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. ...

The newest U.S. ambassador to Cambodia is visiting Long Beach, which is home to the largest population of Cambodians outside their native country – many of whom are still connected to their homeland.   ...