Raped maids sent back to labor agencies

The Cambodian Embassy in Malaysia returned abused Cambodian maids, including women who were raped by their employers, to work at maid recruitment agencies in that country, a new report by Human Rights Watch claims. The New York-based rights group also said Cambodian police colluded with labor recruitment agencies to pressure abused Cambodian maids to remain in training programs and not to file legal complaints against agencies where they suffered abuse. The 105-page report, which was released yesterday at a news conference in Phnom Penh, documented a wide range of abuses of Cambodian women working as maids in Malaysia, including debt bondage, underage recruitment and forced confinement by agencies, as well as physical and sexual abuse by Malaysian employers, who also frequently withheld workers’ salaries and passports…