Local workers abroad

Nearly 450 Cambodians who were illegally working in Thailand were repatriated across the Battambang province border on Saturday in one of the largest one-day operations along that border, officials said yesterday. Thai authorities had rounded up the 447 workers, who were busted without the required paperwork, ...

One of the biggest challenges to protecting Cambodian migrant workers is the sheer distance between their homeland and the countries they are working in, Ministry of Labour officials said yesterday. A pattern has emerged in which brokers lure more and more Cambodians away from traditional border-country ...

More than 2,00 female workers from a factory in Phnom Penh that makes clothes for the U.S. brand Gap protested yesterday for a third straight day demanding that the firm sack a manager at the factory for allegedly abusing workers. Lining Russian Boulevard near the Ocean ...

Thai media reports yesterday offered conflicting information on whether members of Cambodia’s Cham community were joining a long-running Muslim insurgency in Thailand’s southern provinces. According to the [Bangkok] Post, General Prayuth said most of the Cambodian Muslims were traveling on to other countries in search ...

Official from Cambodian immigration, law enforcement and diplomatic circles were either unaware of, or unwilling to talk yesterday about, an alleged request from the Thai government to help monitor Cambodian Muslims crossing into the country. News of the alleged monitoring surfaced on Monday when Thai ...

The number of Cambodian workers passing through Poipet international checkpoint to work in Thailand decreased by 10 percent during the first six months of the year compared to 2011, an immigration police officer said yesterday. Leak Romnea, chief of administration of Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet immigration ...

More Cambodian migrant workers headed to South Korea in the first half of this year than in all of 2011, data from the Ministry of Labour shows. A suspension on Vietnamese migration, coupled with an improving Korean economy, primarily accounted for the jump, officials say. Working ...

A Cambodian maid who recently returned home from work in Malaysia fell ill and died over the weekend, highlighting ongoing concerns over the treatment of impoverished Southeast Asian women who seek work abroad but are often abused by their employers. Kuy Lyda, 17, died at a ...

Two Cambodians were repatriated yesterday after being rescued from a fishing vessel at a port in Senegal on Friday, thanks to collaborative intervention by the International Organization for Migration and Senegalese authorities. Toy Koeun, 29, from Pursat province, and Som Pich, 20, from Kampot province, said ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blamed illegal immigration for contributing to a current shortage in the Cambodian labor market but said workers could benefit from rising wages as a result of the demand for workers. Mr. Hun Sen said the shortage was hitting the agriculture sector ...

Thailand has appealed to Cambodia to send more migrant workers to the country due to a high demand for labor following last year’s devastating floods, while Cambodia has in turn asked that Thailand render the migration process safer, speedier and cheaper, Choub Narth, deputy director ...

After a year of mounting concern over the treatment of migrant workers both within and outside Cambodia, the Ministry of Labor, NGOs and recruitment agencies yesterday reached an agreement on standardized contracts aimed at minimizing the possibility for exploitation. The groups agreed on a contract between ...

Thailand’s ongoing recovery efforts from recent flooding have led to a resurgence in the country’s demand for labor, resulting in a record number of Cambodian migrants crossing the border in search of work, officials and experts said yesterday. Ouk Keorattanak, Banteay Manteay provincial deputy administration chief, ...

The government has approved Qatar as a destination for the growing number of Cambodian labourers seeking employment overseas. Workers will not be recruited for housekeeping services, however, private sector officials said. The abuse of maids in Malaysia – many of whom were reportedly under-aged – has ...

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it was cooperating with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to repatriate 30 men – part of a group of 65 Cambodians who are in Indonesia after enduring months of abuse and exploitation while working aboard Thai fishing ...

Thirteen construction workers have filed a complaint against the Banteay Meanchey provincial branch of T&P Co Ltd – the recruitment agency at the center of allegations involving illegal detainment of trainees – officials said yesterday. The workers, who had previously worked illegally as construction workers in ...

Job recruitment agencies that send workers overseas often deceive young women through misleading job advertisements by using brokers that have “a position of authority” within the community, according to a new report by the Asia Foundation. According to the report, agencies also inflate migration costs that ...