Labor policy and administration

The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has accused the country’s Khon Kaen Sugar of “serious human rights violations” at its two Cambodian plantations in a new report that urges the firm to return the land to the hundreds of families forced off their farms—some ...

Human rights activists are calling for more transparency in any potential agreement to send Cambodian workers to Qatar. ...

A group of 38 fishermen returned to Cambodia on Tuesday after being rescued from forced labor in Indonesia. ...

A Cambodian migrant worker was shot dead by a Thai foreman at the construction site where he was working last week in Thailand’s Chachoengsao province, a border official said Sunday. ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia re-elected Van Sou Ieng as chairman—a position he has held for nearly two decades—at its annual general meeting on Saturday but approved a new two-term limit on the two-year post. ...

As 58 Cambodian fishermen rescued from slavery in Indonesia await their travel documents to return home, the intergovernmental body organizing their return is attempting to raise money to pay for their travel because the Cambodian government is not offering any funds for their repatriation. ...

A Cambodian labour union this week sent a letter to the Japanese Embassy, asking for help dealing with reported violence against workers at a Japanese-owned garment factory in Kampong Speu province. ...

The Free Trade Union on Thursday submitted a letter to the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh requesting that embassy officials investigate a Japanese-owned garment factory in Kompong Speu province that it claims tried to intimidate a union representative late last year. ...

Phnom Penh City Hall expressed uncertainty yesterday as to whether it would be able to allow a planned 3,000-person labour union rally on May 1, in observation of International Labour Day. ...

More than 40 employees at a South Korean firm in Phnom Penh continued a two-week-old strike Tuesday over their demotions earlier in the month and have started to protest, the workers and company said. ...

The Ministry of Labour has given a recruitment firm 45 days to repay clients who filed a complaint alleging the company collected their money but never delivered promised jobs in Japan. ...

When Roeun Hen would try to take a break from his 20-hour shift trawling Indonesian waters for fish, his Thai captain would pummel him, kicking and punching the 29-year-old until he returned to work. ...

While mental health services are crucial to the recovery process for the Kingdom’s victims of human trafficking, stigma and limited resources remain a barrier in the provision of and access to those services, according to a new study published yesterday. The research, published in the International ...

At least 58 Cambodians were among the more than 300 enslaved fishermen recently rescued from a remote island in Indonesia’s Maluku province, an intergovernmental migration body said Tuesday. ...

Their ranks are small but growing, and they want their government to join an international labor treaty. “If we organize, we can help each other,” says a 25-year-old housekeeper who started working when she was 10 and earns $75 a month. ...

Nineteen Cambodian men were repatriated Sunday morning after being rescued by Indonesian authorities from slavery on Thai fishing boats, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong. ...

The head of the Interior Ministry’s general department of immigration issued a statement on Wednesday reminding foreigners working in Cambodia that they are required to hold a work permit—and will face fines if they do not. ...

The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Wednesday charged two women with human trafficking for allegedly luring five other women to China with promises of jobs, only to force them into marriage. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday met with a visiting delegation of U.S. Congress members, including House of Representatives minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a government spokesman said. ...

Anti-human trafficking police arrested a woman Wednesday after they discovered she was running an unlicensed training center in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that promised to send students to work in Japan or South Korea after paying for courses, an official said Thursday. ...

A worker was seriously injured on Monday at a Phnom Penh construction site owned by the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC), just four months after a falling pipe killed a passing motorist at another site owned by the politically connected developer, police said. ...

About 40 workers from Phnom Penh’s Meroson garment factory delivered a petition signed by 700 of their colleagues to a representative of Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday, calling on the premier to intervene in their dispute over what they say is the factory’s failure ...

UK retailer Marks & Spencer and the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) have disputed the details of a report alleging labour rights abuses are still rife in the country’s garment factories, with both claiming they are committed to providing and supporting safe working conditions. ...

On a dusty highway on the edge of this port city, thousands of young women and a few hundred young men block evening traffic as they stream out of the New Star Shoes factory. ...