Social development
‘Abused’ maid awaits return
Woman who was taking part in a pilot scheme to place Cambodian maids in Singapore is waiting to be repatriated after being molested at her employers home and allegedly mistreated by a recruitment firm, she said yesterday. Nation’s managing director, Gary Chin, rejected those claims ...
Sen David and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98abused%E2%80%99-maid-awaits-return
Tensions flare in minister’s wife’s land dispute
About 100 military and provincial police descended upon the rural village of Lor Peang on Monday morning, acting on what they said was a court order to arrest three villagers standing in the way of an agro-development project. More than 70 local residents involved in a ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tensions-flare-in-ministers-wifes-land-dispute-63446/
Companies warned over slow development of ELCs
Provincial government officials in Stung Treng have warned companies granted economic land concessions (ELCs) in the province to fulfil their promised development plans or face losing their rights to the land. Touch Thea, director of the Stung Treng provincial department of agriculture, said the call for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/companies-warned-over-slow-development-elcs
Boeng Kak families ask ACU to probe Senator’s land sale
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood lodged a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Monday, asking it to investigate 12 current and former government officials and Senator Lao Meng Khin over the senator’s plans to sell land they say was stolen from ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-families-ask-acu-to-probe-senators-land-sale-63453/
Company ‘destroyed rice field’
Representatives of a Chinese firm embroiled in a land dispute in Preah Vihear province have destroyed a hectare of rice fields to drive a farmer away, villagers alleged yesterday. According to 45-year-old villager Tem Song, on June 28 six Cambodian and Chinese employees of Roy Feng ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/company-%E2%80%98destroyed-rice-field%E2%80%99
Working ‘mother’ kept child chained
A day after Prime Minister Hun Sen pointed out the need for more effective child protection in Cambodia, police in Koh Kong arrested and released a woman who admitted to chaining her 4-year-old “adopted daughter” inside their house eight hours a day for the past ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/working-%E2%80%98mother%E2%80%99-kept-child-chained
Workers continue strike over change to pay day
About 1,000 workers from the Canteran factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district continued to strike on Saturday over a decision to push back the day they are paid. The workers have been on strike since Thursday after being told they will be paid on the 10th ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-continue-strike-over-change-to-pay-day-63314/
Bus company to reject workers' win
The general manager of Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation bus company says he will likely reject a Friday ruling by the Arbitration Council ordering the reinstatement of 15 employees fired for trying to form a labour union. Sorya Transportation general manager Chan Sophanna yesterday said he had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bus-company-reject-workers-win
Disability initiatives launched as jobs quota not met
For Cambodians with disabilities, the launch of two major initiatives in the past two days designed to improve their lives has brought some optimism about the future—tempered by a note of caution. At Koh Pich island on Thursday, in front of a crowd of more than ...
Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/disability-initiatives-launched-as-jobs-quota-not-met-63276/
Land battle leads locals to protest
About 100 villagers in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district who allege two powerful families are trying to push them off their land protested yesterday after workers fenced off more than 3 hectares of the land they claim in Kouk Rokar commune. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-battle-leads-locals-protest
Cities, provinces ordered to report on illegal logging, fishing
In yet another attempt to stem the looting of Cambodia’s forests, lakes and rivers, the Interior Ministry has given all cities and provinces until July 20 to submit detailed reports on all the illegal logging and fishing taking place in their jurisdictions. The latest initiative comes ...
Illegal Ratanakkiri gem mine raided
District and military police in Ratanakkiri raided an illegal gem mine inside a Chinese company’s land concession on Saturday but failed to make any arrests, according to a rights group representative. Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, said about 200 illegal gem miners had settled on ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/illegal-ratanakkiri-gem-mine-raided
Chemicals in war-era barrels tested and confirmed as tear gas
The head of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority (CMAC) said Thursday that field testing of a pair of war-era barrels found by villagers in Mondolkiri province earlier this week identified the contents as CS, a tear gas-like powder or aerosol that was used by the ...
Zsombor Peter and Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chemicals-in-war-era-barrels-tested-and-confirmed-as-tear-gas-63226/
Cambodia sees 83 pct drop in dengue fever cases in first half
Cambodia has reported 1,005 dengue fever cases in the first six months of 2014, down 83 percent from 6,039 cases in the same period last year, a health official said Friday. Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, said ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2014-07/04/c_133460228.htm
Maids forced into debt bondage in Singapore
In August last year, the government launched a pilot project that sent 220 women to work as maids in Singapore, the first major effort to open up a new market for Cambodia’s domestic workers after the government halted sending maids to Malaysia due to persistent ...
Matt Blomberg and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maids-forced-into-debt-bondage-in-singapore-63194/
Man arrested, shots fired at land dispute protest
A villager was arrested and authorities fired shots Thursday in an attempt to quell a protest against the pending eviction in Preah Vihear province of more than 80 families at the hands of timber magnate Try Pheap, villagers said. Lor Chan, provincial coordinator for rights ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/man-arrested-shots-fired-at-land-dispute-protest-63224/
ILO says shaming factories leading to improved standards
Naming and shaming factories that fail to ensure a basic standard of conditions for their workers is starting to improve standards in the crucial garment sector, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), but persistent offenders remain. Nine factories are included in the “lowest compliance” category ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ilo-says-shaming-factories-leading-to-improved-standards-63202/
Joint patrols on agenda
In response to a spate of Cambodian illegal loggers being shot dead by Thai soldiers near the border, the government on Tuesday urged a Thai delegation to consider border patrols composed of representatives from the two countries, the foreign minister said. “I would like to request ...
Chhay Channyda and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/joint-patrols-agenda
Officials ‘take cut’ of dam compensation
Officials involved in negotiating compensation offers between the developers of the Lower Sesan II dam and affected villagers have kept a portion of the money paid out to 12 families for themselves, according to an official. Duong Pov, Stung Treng provincial administration director, claimed that a ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-%E2%80%98take-cut%E2%80%99-dam-compensation
Six months on, no justice for shootings
Six months ago today, security forces opened fire on garment workers protesting for a doubling of their minimum wage on Phnom Penh’s factory-lined Veng Sreng Boulevard. At least five people were killed in what rights groups called the worst state violence against citizens in 15 ...
Vong Sokheng and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/six-months-no-justice-shootings
Villagers agree to remeasuring of disputed land
Villagers caught in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm in Kompong Speu province Wednesday attempted to reclaim farmland they say is theirs, but were thwarted by provincial authorities, who appeased them by promising to measure the land again. About 250 families in Phnom Sruoch district ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-agree-to-remeasuring-of-disputed-land-63077/
200 workers protest against forced overtime
About 200 workers from the Chinese-owned Pollysa (Cambodia) Home Textile factory in Sihanoukville protested Wednesday against the overtime they were being forced to work and the firing of 20 employees earlier this week who refused the extra hours, workers and a union representative said. Starting at ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/200-factory-workers-protest-against-forced-overtime-63085/
Developer ordered to halt work on disputed land
The governor of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district Wednesday ordered the private firm heading a $3-billion real estate project on the peninsula to temporarily stop pumping sand onto land being contested by about 40 local families, but urged the families to reconsider the compensation on ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/developer-ordered-to-halt-work-on-disputed-land-63087/
‘Chemical’ barrels to be tested
Experts will begin tests today on two barrels discovered in Mondulkiri province earlier this week, which are suspected to contain chemicals used by the US in the 1970s in its war against the Viet Cong, officials said yesterday. Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine ...
Sen David and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98chemical%E2%80%99-barrels-be-tested