Maids set to work abroad, but safety fears linger
After a three-year moratorium on sending maids overseas—sparked by a spate of serious abuses by recruiters and employers—momentum is building to once again send hundreds of thousands of Cambodian women to work overseas as domestic servants. Since Prime Minister Hun Sen shut down the industry in October 2011, reports of sexual abuse, confinement and forced labor have continued to filter back to Cambodia from Malaysia. … “Based on our previous experience sending workers to Thailand and Malaysia, we estimate that $120 million [could] be sent to Cambodia in remittances each year,” said Heng Suor, spokesman for the Labor Ministry. … Since the 2011 freeze, the Ministry of Labor, with technical support from the U.N.’s International Labor Organization (ILO), has worked to tighten regulations around the recruitment of maids and the protection of their human rights. In December, the Ministry launched eight new directives to support Sub-Decree 190 on the Management of Sending Cambodian Workers Abroad Through Private Recruitment Agencies. While not legally binding, the prakas give greater control of the maid market to the Labor Ministry—now the sole body tasked with handling formal complaints and monitoring and inspecting recruitment agencies. … Human Resources Development Company, a Phnom Penh-based recruitment agency, is owned by the family of Othsman Hassan, a Labor Ministry secretary of state, according to local rights group Licadho. In December, Mr. Hassan chaired a workshop on the Malaysia MoU. In his opening speech, he urged a swift return to business. “The more workers we can send, the more money we can earn and the more money comes back to Cambodia,” Mr. Hassan said. A target of 300,000 maids in Malaysia would amount to annual remittances of $1.5 billion, he added. … Sok Leap Metrey—along with Philimore and the Ung Rithy Group—was given exclusive rights to the Singapore pilot, a decision that came from Mr. Sakada, according to Pin Vireak, a secretary at the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA). “We got a call from the Ministry of Labor approving the three companies [for the Singapore pilot],” Mr. Vireak said after a training workshop for recruitment agencies in March. “Mr. Sakada is the director of the labor department and he made the decision.” …
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maids-set-to-work-abroad-but-safety-fears-linger-58853/
