Fake Orphanage Ordered Closed After Alleged Migrant Scam

The Ministry of Interior has suspended the operation of an orphanage after it found that its director had colluded with a recruitment agency to cheat migrant workers out of an alleged $600,000, officials said Tuesday. “The Ministry of Interior temporarily suspends all activities of Our Friends Orphanage,” located in Takeo province’s Prey Kabbas district, as well as its six branches in Sihanoukville, Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampot, and Kompong Cham provinces and Phnom Penh, the ministry wrote in a letter signed by Secretary of State Pol Lim on January 17. … The ministry had summoned Thoeun Samnang, the orphanage’s director, for questioning, but Mr. Samnang had escaped and is now at large, according to Mr. Chansopheak. Phone calls to the orphanages went unanswered Tuesday. Mr. Samnang, together with the recruitment agency You Can Win, had promised to help hundreds of people migrate to work in South Korea if they completed a language course first, Mr. Chansopheak said. In December, workers began to complain to the Ministry of Labor, saying that although they had paid between $100 and $150 for Korean language classes, You Can Win failed to provide the promised jobs in Korea, he added. …

Khuon Narim
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