Child labor probe on Preah Vihear sugar plantation moves forward
Police in Preah Vihear province say they have uncovered more evidence of child labor on a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation and will send the case to court if further investigation confirms their preliminary findings. A former employee of the Lan Feng plantation filed a complaint last month against Y Heng, the company managing the property, located in northern Cambodia. Prang Thida, the head of anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection for the provincial police, said he recently obtained a list of employees from Y Heng and that the company confirmed that 20 of its 55 workers were between the ages of 13 and 17. ... Labor Law sets the minimum age for employment at 15. But it allows children as young as 12 to do light work deemed non-hazardous, as long as it does not interfere with their school attendance. In a related case, about 200 ethnic minority Kuoy villagers involved in a land dispute with the Lan Feng plantation protested in front of the provincial police office Wednesday against the scheduled police questioning of three fellow villagers. Deputy provincial police chief Keo Chamroeun said the three were summoned for questioning Wednesday because Lan Feng filed a complaint against them Tuesday for allegedly pulling out sugarcane stalks on the plantation. ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/child-labor-probe-on-preah-vihear-sugar-plantation-moves-forward-55643/
