Human trafficking

Seventy-five Cambodian workers and six children marooned for 10 days after being lured to build a resort on Koh Mook in Trang’s Kantang district were rescued on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, Employment Department chief Sumet Mahosot yesterday said 444,097 migrant workers and 48,541 accompanying persons had ...

Thailand is on the process to heighten flexibility for workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to obtain legal identification paperwork and land needed work in the country, said the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington. In the release issued chiefly to show Thailand’s actions to fight human ...

Svay Pak is an internationally known district for child sex in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh, where foreign men come to seek sex with young girls. According to a 2011 study by ECPAT Cambodia, around 75 percent of the victims of sex trafficking within Cambodia were children. The study also ...

Decriminalising sex work could slash the world’s HIV infections by a third or more, according to a new study. Published yesterday in health journal The Lancet, the paper says that punitive treatment of sex workers can “elevate HIV acquisition and transmission risks”. In Cambodia, which has Southeast Asia’s ...

A Cambodian woman who went to China to marry a man there was repatriated on Thursday after escaping from her husband’s house and finding refuge at the Cambodian consulate in Guangzhou. Yoeng Sreymom arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport at about 3:30 p.m. in the company ...

On the road to legal employment in Thailand, Cambodian migrant workers are being made to undergo check-ups that have them cough, strip and give blood and urine samples to prove they are physically and mentally sound enough to work in the country. Obtaining a workers’ permit, ...

Thai authorities have found five Cambodians employed illegally at a clothing store in Phuket after they were allegedly sold into slave-like conditions by a human-trafficking network, according to Thai media. ...

Three border provinces with Cambodia opened offices to document Cambodian workers entering Thailand on Thursday, to combat human trafficking and illegal labour, with a fourth to open on Monday. Three new one-stop centres were opened at the border in Sa Kaeo, Chanthaburi and Trat provinces, to issue  temporary ...

Cambodia failed to improve its ranking on the U.S.’ annual “Trafficking in Persons Report” after being demoted last year. Released on Friday, the global report again ranks Cambodia on the Tier 2 Watch List, one tier away from the lowest position, Tier 3. ...

Human rights workers say the US and other countries should censure Thailand over fisheries practices that mean near-slavery for many Cambodians and others. An investigative report by the UK-based Guardian newspaper exposed serious abuses in the Thai fishing trade, where workers are cheated of pay, kept ...

They save for months, borrowing from family and friends, even taking out loans, to pour as much as a year’s worth of earnings into the hands of recruiters that may have no intention and certainly have no guarantee of procuring overseas employment. Recruitment agencies, several of ...

Four parents in Kampong Cham province have filed complaints with provincial police alleging that their daughters are being sexually abused by their husbands in China, officers said yesterday. Thol Meng, deputy bureau chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking department, said a total of 10 concerned mothers ...

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 ...

A Taiwanese woman and five associates charged with trafficking Cambodians to work in slave-like conditions on fishing boats off the coast of Africa had their case heard by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday. Lin Yu Shin, the 54-year-old owner of the now defunct Giant ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of three people who were charged with fraudulently obtaining passports for four Cambodian women in an attempt to send them to China for marriage. ...

Cambodia has provided examples of “best practices” in the fight against human trafficking for a forthcoming Asean convention against the trafficking of people, experts said Friday at the close of a two-day conference in Phnom Penh on irregular migration and human trafficking. The Asean region is ...

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 ...

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 ...

Anti-human trafficking police in Phnom Penh arrested three Cambodians and two Chinese nationals after the group tried to traffic two young women—who had been promised wealthy husbands—to work as prostitutes in China, police said Monday. Keo Thea, chief of the municipal anti-human trafficking police, said the ...

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, ...

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 ...

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday gave a talk to some 200 Cambodian youths in Phnom Penh, describing criminal investigation, especially in human trafficking and child prostitution. Various youth from across nine provinces attended the discussion, where they learned how they can participate in ...

A 7-month-old baby, a woman and two men en route to Malaysia were rescued from two alleged traffickers near the Cambodia-Thai border in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town, police said yesterday. Heng Chhun, 48, and Som Na, 38, will face charges related to human trafficking, Prum Sonthor, ...

Seven Vietnamese nationals arrested during simultaneous raids on a pair of massage parlors in central Phnom Penh on Thursday night have been sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for their role in the alleged trafficking of minors, police and a child-protection NGO said Sunday. “We ...