Relocated and living on the edge
Years after their eviction from central Phnom Penh, families continue to trickle back into the city from their relocation sites on the city’s outskirts. They search for cheap rental rooms instead of houses like the ones they were driven out of, in some cases, by bulldozers and baton-wielding policemen. Many of those who have not returned say they cannot afford to because the loss of their home and employment has left them stranded in poverty. Yan El, 56, lives near Oudong Mountain in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district in a village still known as “Blue Tent Community”. She had been a vendor in Dey Krahom village in the city centre before police and employees of 7NG Company forcibly evicted its residents at dawn on January 24, 2009. Some families received housing in Damnak Trayoeng village, about 20 kilometres from the city centre, while others – like Yan El – set up camp under blue tarpaulins along a road near the village in Dangkor district waiting for homes. Families were eventually given four by six metre plots of land in Phnom Bat commune, at the foot of Oudong Mountain. They built their homes themselves, with pieces of wood, tin and palm leaves for roofs. Two years later, most of these shelters have been abandoned, and others still look temporary or dilapidated…
