MPs Urge Child Labor Action

A group of opposition lawmakers have written to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action against a sugar factory owned by a ruling party official accused of exploiting child labor and grabbing land from villagers. Six Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarians sent a letter dated Jan. 23 through National Assembly President Heng Samrin, calling on Hun Sen to “take serious measures” against the Phnom Penh Sugar Co., which runs the factory in central Cambodia’s Kompong Speu province. … The company belonging to ruling Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat has been at the center of a long-running dispute with villagers who say they were offered inadequate compensation for land they had farmed for years which was taken over by the sugar project. “Ly Yong Phat’s factory is using child labor from workers who are under 18 years of age,” reads the letter, demanding that Hun Sen take actions to “improve working conditions in this factory, which is abusing the rights of children.” … It also called on the sugar company to resolve its land dispute with the more than 1,000 villagers in Kompong Speu province. Member of Parliament Mu Sochua, who described the company as a “’blood sugar’ producer known for encroaching on villagers’ land,” said she and her fellow SRP lawmakers had discovered that the factory was employing underage children through an “investigation,” without providing further details. …

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/children-01292013174957.html