Population and censuses
Population
Amnesty International urges Gov’t to scrap asylum seeker plans
Amnesty International on Friday lambasted a pending deal that would see people seeking asylum in Australia to be resettled in Cambodia. “Australia should be ending its offshore processing and detention of asylum seekers, not looking to outsource its refugee responsibilities to another, much poorer country,” ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/amnesty-international-urges-govt-to-scrap-asylum-seeker-plans-57996/
At government rally, all proceeds smoothly
While workers and opposition supporters marched to mark Labour Day yesterday, and baton-wielding district security guards enforced a ban on gatherings, a very different, uninterrupted rally took place at the capital’s Koh Pich Exhibition Center. About 2,000 workers from pro-government unions and government officials heard Labour ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/government-rally-all-proceeds-smoothly
Ministry to open one-window service for migrants
The government has created a one-window information service to help would-be workers avoid illegal migration to Thailand as part of a bilateral agreement with Thailand, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Thursday. The quick-service windows will help make sure Cambodian workers enter Thailand legally by facilitating ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-to-open-one-window-service-for-migrants-57960/
Development body's concern for refugees resettled in Cambodia
Refugees who are resettled in Cambodia by the Australian government will be unlikely to gain employment rights, get an education or be given permanent residency, according to a peak international development body. The Australian Council for International Development said Australia had entered “uncharted territory” by resettling ...
Trafficker gets 10 years
The manager of Giant Ocean International, a now-defunct recruitment firm notorious for abuse scandals, was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in jail for trafficking hundreds of Cambodian fishermen to work in slave-like conditions overseas. Taiwanese national Lin Yu-shin, who ran the firm, was arrested in May ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trafficker-gets-10-years
Maids ‘abused’ in Singapore
At least three Cambodians who have travelled to work as maids in Singapore since August last year as part of a pilot scheme have complained to worker welfare groups there about employer abuse and poor working conditions, including molestation and the slapping of a worker. In ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/maids-%E2%80%98abused%E2%80%99-singapore
Thailand deports migrants
More than 100 Cambodians were deported from Thailand yesterday after Thai security forces conducted operations over the weekend aimed at stemming the flow of illegal immigrants. Net Sary, Cambodia’s consul-general in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, said yesterday that 120 Cambodians, including four minors, were deported after ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thailand-deports-migrants
Gov’t still considering taking refugees from Australia
Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Thursday that the government is still considering an Australian government proposal to take in asylum seekers intercepted while trying to reach the country. Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to swear in the heads of the new general departments of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-still-considering-taking-refugees-from-australia-57347/
Heads of new departments of immigration, identification sworn in
Interior Minister Sar Kheng presided over a ceremony in Phnom Penh on Thursday to appoint the directors of his ministry’s new general departments of immigration and identification, who have both stood down as National Police deputy commissioners to take up the positions. At the ceremony, General ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/heads-of-new-departments-of-immigration-identification-sworn-in-57344/
Cambodia route reopens for Uighur refugees
Recent arrests by Thai authorities of groups of suspected Uighur refugees along the Cambodian border have experts convinced that Cambodia has once again become a transit hub for members of the minority group fleeing religious and political persecution in China. Last week, 14 Uighurs were reportedly ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-route-reopens-for-uighur-refugees-57340/
Concern over migration chief’s family connections
The appointment of General Sok Phal to head the Interior Ministry’s newly formed department to monitor migrant workers has raised concerns over his close familial connection to a labor recruitment industry fraught with human rights abuses. Gen. Phal’s sister, Ung Seang Rithy, is the owner of ...
Matt Blomberg and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
UN critical of pending asylum seeker deal
Officials with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday spoke out for the first time against Australia’s plans to send some of the asylum seekers trying to reach its shores to Cambodia, saying the pending deal was not a “real ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
Uighurs ‘arrested’ at border
A group of 14 ethnic minority Uighurs, including six children, fleeing China were arrested on Saturday in the Thai border province of Sa Keo after Cambodian smugglers deserted them on Friday, Thai media reported yesterday. The five men, three women and six children who were apprehended ...
Amelia Woodside and Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/uighurs-%E2%80%98arrested%E2%80%99-border
Australian Minister says Cambodia could take refugees on Nauru
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that Cambodia may soon agree to take in asylum seekers who are now detained on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru after being diverted while trying to reach Australia. Mr. Morrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that next ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/staying-at-home-not-a-strike-factories-say-56440/
Cambodia leads doubts over AEC
In a rare moment of honesty a Cambodian official has admitted his doubts about his country’s ability to meet regional expectations in time for the launch of the much vaunted ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015. “If you talk about short-term: Yes, we ...
Luke Hunt
http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/cambodia-leads-doubts-over-aec/
Australian PM confirms asylum seeker request
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday confirmed that Cambodia was in talks with his government to take in some of the refugees trying to reach his country’s shores, according to Australian media. Mr. Abbott’s statement was the first official admission from his administration that Australia ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/australian-pm-confirms-asylum-seeker-request-55850/
Labor ministry to inspect migrant worker recruitment agencies
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 ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-ministry-to-inspect-migrant-worker-recruitment-agencies-54925/
True refuge still elusive for refugees
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 ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/true-refuge-still-elusive-refugees
Government works on Australia refugee plea
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 ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-works-on-australia-refugee-plea-54044/
Cambodia to meet Malaysia over maids MoU
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 ...
Denise Hruby and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-to-meet-malaysia-over-maids-mou-53635/
Tragedy hits home
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 ...
Cheang Sokha and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tragedy-hits-home
‘Cambodian’ workers die in Thailand
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 ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98cambodian%E2%80%99-workers-die-thailand
Cambodia says Thai soldiers shoot dead 69 Cambodians illegally crossing border in 2013
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. ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=201807
Trafficking fight goes on: gov’t
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 ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trafficking-fight-goes-gov%E2%80%99t