News

Cambodia’s National Police chief Neth Savoeun has told foreign embassies that it won’t tolerate “foreign mafia” in the Kingdom, in what appears to be a thinly veiled message to Russia concerning recent conflict between Russian nationals in Sihanoukville. According to the statement, Savoeun has been ...

Four of the 36 Jarai Montagnards deported last month have “disappeared” from their village in Vietnam’s central highlands, prompting fears among villagers that they may have been detained by the authorities. The group of 36 Montagnards was deported on the night of February 24 after attempting ...

In a move seemingly incongruent with the government’s plans to offer clemency to a number of female inmates on International Women’s Day on Sunday, a local rights group announced yesterday that new restrictions introduced by authorities have forced them to cancel prison activities marking the ...

Local rights group Licadho yesterday praised the government’s plan to release a number of incarcerated women who are pregnant or have their children with them in prison within the next week, but said deeper reforms are needed. In a statement, the NGO said it welcomed an ...

Prison overcrowding continues to be a major issue plaguing Cambodia, Ministry of Interior officials said on Monday, as they revealed a 3 per cent increase in population at correctional facilities and prisons nationwide. In 2014, the number of prisoners rose from 14,702 in 2013 to 15,165 ...

A mother whose daughter was trafficked into the Malaysian sex industry has pleaded with lawmakers to help rescue her child, as new figures from Cambodia’s Interior Ministry reveal an upswing in human trafficking victims rescued last year. According to the ministry, although sex trafficking cases ...

Outspoken environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson has been arrested by Interior Ministry officers and taken in an unmarked car to the Ministry of Interior, a rights group and witnesses have said. Cheang Sophos, a senior investigator for local rights group Licadho, said that Gonzalez-Davidson was arrested at ...

The number of traffic accidents over Lunar New Year has decreased since last year due to more widespread knowledge of the upcoming traffic law, government officials and road safety experts say. ...

Authorities have vowed to seize fireworks and punish anyone caught letting off explosives as Lunar New Year celebrations get under way today. The warning by the Phnom Penh municipality came as the Interior Ministry revealed plans to station more than 20 fire trucks around the city ...

A draft law to protect state secrets has been in the works for more than two years and could be submitted to the Council of Minister for review in two months’ time, a senior police official said yesterday. ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday cast a negative light on Phnom Penh, labelling the capital a hotbed for criminal activity and likening the levels of street crime to the Ho Chi Minh City of yore, where he said it was once unsafe to walk around ...

Montagnards seeking asylum in Cambodia and who are found to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam will not be allowed to stay in the Kingdom if a third country does not accept them, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. Speaking after opening a workshop on violence against ...

Cambodia, a common source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, yesterday launched a far-reaching plan to combat the exploitative practice. The 2014 to 2018 National Plan of Action (NPA), which was launched yesterday afternoon at the Interior Ministry, was devised by the National Committee for ...

Senior officials at the Ministry of Interior who have recently retired will be reappointed to “political positions”, Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. ...

A state secrets law being drafted by the Interior Ministry will not be used to target reporting on sensitive issues such as corruption, a senior military police official said yesterday. The National Police announced that the law was being drafted late last month following a ...

Government spokesman and four-star General Khieu Sopheak has threatened to sue an NGO worker over his “false allegations” about Montagnard asylum seekers. Sopheak said authorities had only arrested “illegal Vietnamese immigrants”, and called on Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc and the ...

The Interior Ministry is rushing to print passports for thousands of Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand before a March 31 deadline set by the neighbouring junta. So far, the Interior Ministry has received a list of just 60,000 workers in need of passports, according to the ...

The ministries of health and interior introduced a joint strategy yesterday to curb illegal medical practices and the use of fraudulent health products. ...

A rights group has asked the Cambodian government to stop harassing Christian Montagnards from Vietnam who are seeking refugee status in the country following the arrest of a family of five Montagnards in a northeastern province. ...

The Ministry of Interior announced a decision to draft a law to protect state secrets after meeting with Vietnamese defence officials yesterday, the National Police has announced. According to a statement on the police website, Vietnam will support the training of government officials in encryption and ...

Eighteen Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri province from Vietnam on Wednesday morning, according to a rights group and a local villager, the fourth such group to arrive in the country this month. Chhay Thy, the provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said the 18 were ...

The Labor Ministry released a statement Monday with a list of procedures all businesses in Cambodia that hire foreign workers must follow in order to comply with the country’s long-standing Labor Law. According to Monday’s statement, which was signed by Labor Minister Ith Sam ...

The Interior Ministry promoted three senior police officials to the rank of deputy National Police commissioner in a ceremony Tuesday afternoon, swelling the ranks of deputy commissioners to 15 in apparent preparation for three other deputies to retire. In the absence of Interior Minister Sar Kheng, ...

Police have warned coffee lovers there could be a couple of bad batches circulating and percolating in Phnom Penh after a raid on a fake coffee enterprise in Sen Sok district’s Khmuonh commune yesterday. Officers arrested four men during the joint operation in Banlar Sa Et ...