News
‘Abused’ maid awaits return
Woman who was taking part in a pilot scheme to place Cambodian maids in Singapore is waiting to be repatriated after being molested at her employers home and allegedly mistreated by a recruitment firm, she said yesterday. Nation’s managing director, Gary Chin, rejected those claims ...
Sen David and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98abused%E2%80%99-maid-awaits-return
Maids forced into debt bondage in Singapore
In August last year, the government launched a pilot project that sent 220 women to work as maids in Singapore, the first major effort to open up a new market for Cambodia’s domestic workers after the government halted sending maids to Malaysia due to persistent ...
Matt Blomberg and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maids-forced-into-debt-bondage-in-singapore-63194/
200 workers protest against forced overtime
About 200 workers from the Chinese-owned Pollysa (Cambodia) Home Textile factory in Sihanoukville protested Wednesday against the overtime they were being forced to work and the firing of 20 employees earlier this week who refused the extra hours, workers and a union representative said. Starting at ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/200-factory-workers-protest-against-forced-overtime-63085/
Security guards accused of beating
Security guards working for a firm building a resort in Koh Kong province beat a woman who was trying to farm the land from which she had been evicted, she has told police. Khun Phall, 40, said that on Monday evening, she and family members returned ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/security-guards-accused-beating
Cambodia, China drafting agreement to curb bride trafficking
Cambodia and China are drafting a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to stamp out the exploitative trade of Cambodian women to China, where there have been increasing reports of women being abused by their Chinese husbands and sold into the sex trade. The diplomatic push comes in ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-china-drafting-agreement-to-curb-bride-trafficking-62940/
Torture, beating of detainees continue, report finds
Detainees and prisoners continue to be administered electric shocks, beaten unconscious and even smothered by plastic bags, with 49 new allegations of torture or abuse at the hands of authorities this year, according to rights group Licadho, which says in a report released Wednesday that ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/torture-beating-of-detainees-continue-report-finds-62461/
Hun Sen’s sister tied to company in Boeng Kak land sale
A development firm owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and accused of illegally evicting thousands of families from central Phnom Penh recently sold a small piece of its project area for $14.9 million to a company with ties to one of Prime Minister Hun ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-sister-tied-to-company-in-boeng-kak-land-sale-62344/
For villagers losing land, Hun Sen is last resort
Three separate communities from across the country were in Phnom Penh on Monday to petition Prime Minister Hun Sen to personally intervene to help settle their various land disputes. Communities affected by alleged land grabs in Phnom Penh and beyond often appeal directly to Mr. Hun ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/for-villagers-losing-land-hun-sen-is-last-resort-62200/
Army creates new platoon in Areng Valley
The army created a new platoon on Monday to guard an area near the Areng Valley in Koh Kong province, where hundreds of ethnic minority residents have fiercely resisted plans by a Chinese company to build a hydropower dam that would flood their ancestral lands. The ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/army-creates-new-platoon-in-areng-valley-62198/
Prey Speu tales conflict
Following last week’s street sweep, children as young as 7 years old were kept in Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre, eyewitnesses, staff and those targeted by the initiative have told the Post, directly contradicting government denials offered earlier this week. Standing at the centre’s ...
Alice Cuddy and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/prey-speu-tales-conflict
Homeless ‘went to Prey Speu’
With a number of homeless, beggars and street sellers who were rounded up in caged vans last week still unaccounted for, several of those targeted by the street sweep claimed yesterday that they had been held in Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre. Homeless ...
Sen David and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/homeless-%E2%80%98went-prey-speu%E2%80%99
Phones Go Up In Flames at Prey Sar Prison
Prey Sar prison officials on Friday set fire to 1,705 mobile phones that had been confiscated from inmates there over the past three years. Yin Kun, deputy chief of Prey Sar’s Correctional Center 1, said that the public burning of phones would remind prisoners that communicating ...
Kang Sothear
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phones-go-up-in-flames-at-prey-sar-prison-61422/
Villagers Claim Soldiers Hired to Prevent Planting
Villagers in Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor district said Friday that Union Development Group (UDG) used military forces to prevent villagers from planting paddy rice on land that is locked in a longstanding dispute, a claim the military denied. Khun Thala, a 40-year-old villager, said Friday that ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-claim-soldiers-hired-to-prevent-planting-61420/
Gov’t called upon to stamp out child labor
The government must make more of an effort to not only eradicate child labor, but also its underlying causes, and ensure that children attend school, local rights group Licadho said Thursday. In a statement released ahead of World Day Against Child Labor, the group said the ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-called-upon-to-stamp-out-child-labor-61337/
Illegal logging forum banned in Preah Vihear
Preah Vihear officials abruptly barred environmental activists from holding a planned public forum Wednesday, with the activists claiming it was for political reasons and officials saying the group had failed to go through the proper channels. Seng Sokheng, secretariat coordinator of Community Peace Building Network, said ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-logging-forum-banned-in-preah-vihear-61218/
City Hall orders curbs on beggars
Phnom Penh municipality on Monday ordered a curb on vagrants entering the city and a roundup of beggars, homeless people and children selling items at traffic lights. In the directive, signed by deputy city governor Seng Ratanak, City Hall orders the 12 district governors, its social ...
Kuch Naren and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-orders-curbs-on-beggars-60865/
Families claim intimidation in land dispute
Twelve families locked in a land dispute in Kampot province blocked a construction company on Wednesday from dumping earth onto fields they maintain are theirs, villagers and a rights worker said Thursday. The villagers say the company began encroaching on their land in 2011, when they ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-claim-intimidation-in-land-dispute-60595/
Out of jail, garment worker sees uncertain future
When Pang Vunny walks around his rented room just off of Veng Sreng Boulevard, he waves his hand from side to side in front of him, like a man feeling his way in the dark. Ever since he was arrested and badly beaten on January 2 ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/out-jail-garment-worker-sees-uncertain-future
Out of jail, garment worker sees uncertain future
When Pang Vunny walks around his rented room just off of Veng Sreng Boulevard, he waves his hand from side to side in front of him, like a man feeling his way in the dark. Ever since he was arrested and badly beaten on January 2 ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/out-jail-garment-worker-sees-uncertain-future
Medical trips await 9 of 23
Nine of the group of 23 workers and labour activists who were released from custody and given suspended sentences on Friday over January’s garment employee protests will receive medical care in Thailand, rights group Licadho said yesterday. A number of the men were beaten by security ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/medical-trips-await-9-23
As verdicts loom in 25 protest related cases, acquittals sought
Verdicts will be handed down Friday in two garment protest-related cases that rights groups say were built on a weak body of evidence. The two cases occurred months apart but followed a similar narrative: Garment workers fed up with their calls for a higher monthly minimum ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-verdicts-loom-in-25-protest-related-cases-acquittals-sought-60056/
Boy caught up in protests faces 11 years in jail
As several hundred garment workers from the SL Garment factory pelted police with rocks during a protest near the Stung Meanchey pagoda in November, Men Sok Sambath, a 14-year-old scrap collector, decided to join the crowd. “I saw other people throwing rocks at the [police] truck, ...
Mech Dara and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boy-caught-up-in-protests-faces-11-years-in-jail-59934/
Mysterious bones stoke conspiracy
A package containing charred human remains was delivered to the Cambodia National Rescue Party office in Phnom Penh yesterday morning. Despite a seeming complete absence of hard evidence, some are convinced the remains – found on Saturday at a mountain in Kampong Speu – belong to ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mysterious-bones-stoke-conspiracy
Union leader rejects video, photo evidence
During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-rejects-video-photo-evidence-59326/