News

The government lifted a 2011 ban on sending Cambodian maids to Malaysia in January, according to a directive Prime Minister Hun Sen signed late last year, contradicting months of government denials. ...

Cambodia has dispatched 4,779 workers to Thailand, South Korea and Japan in the first three months of this year, according to a report from the Ministry of Labor on Friday. During the January-March period this year, the country sent 4, 100 workers to Thailand, 678 workers ...

A Malaysian Court yesterday sentenced a couple to 24 years in jail for culpable homicide after their Cambodian maid starved to death while working for them in their home on the northwest coast of Penag, Agence France Press (AFP) reported. Cambodian opposition lawmaker and former ...

The abuse of Cambodian maids overseas has become one of the most documented human rights violation here. But as the Government, media, NGOs and aid agencies focus their energies on domestic laborer living abroad, advocates have begun to urge that closer attention be paid to ...

The mother of a domestic maid allegedly stranded in Malaysia has become the latest Cambodian claimant to file an official complaint to the Ministry of Interior over labor abuse in the country. Em Sokhum said her 24-year-old daughter Chher Sophorn left to pursue work in Malaysia more than ...

A new made-service company that claims to be the only one of its kind in Cambodia is offering an alternative employment option for the country’s many domestic workers who face insecure, and often abusive, workplace conditions overseas. Ming Hour Home Service, which opened in July, employs ...

Some 285 million workers will migrate for employment when ASEAN countries open their borders to each other in 2015, Prime Minister Hun Sen predicted yesterday, as he urged speedier regional legislative action to ensure they could travel safely. At an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council meeting, the premier warned ...

The Cambodian government has developed six prakases related to a controversial sub-decree that regulates the recruitment of migrant workers, but it cannot yet release the details, a Labor Ministry official said yesterday. On the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Siem Reap aimed at curtailing migrant worker abuses, Seng Sakada, ...

Officials from the government  U.N. and human rights groups on Friday put forward amendments to draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) that is designed to impose safeguards for Cambodians to travel to work as maids in Malaysia. While the original draft by the Malaysian government sets out the responsibility of ...

The governemnt yesterday denied a recent news report that discussions were under way to have Cambodian domestic workers sent to Singapore. An Bunhak, chairman of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA), said he did not know of any immediate plans to send maids to ...

The Ministry of Labour has played down reports it is close to sending domestic workers to Singapore, a country that has only recently granted foreign maids a weekly day off. The two countries’ governments had been in talks with Singapore’s Association of Employment Agencies about placing ...

Cambodia’s next step in allowing workers such as maids and builders to travel to Qatar will be to create a committee with the Arab state to ensure their safety is protected, a senior labour official said yesterday. The Senate on Wednesday supported an agreement between the ...

The ban on sending Cambodian women for employment as maids in Malaysia will be lifted once certain safety and training precautions for workers are established, a senior government official said yesterday. Seng Sakada, the director general of the Ministry of Labour, said that his office is ...

The recruitment firm HRD Company had allegedly threatened the mother of two sisters working as maids in Malaysia, pressuring her to withdraw her NGO complaint seeking help in repatriating her daughters or risk having all communication with them cut, a rights group said yesterday. Pov Chhan, ...

Human and sex trafficking complaints had increased markedly this year, with police vowing to redouble their resources to fight the rampant crimes, officials said at a summit on Friday. Mok Chito, head of the General Secretariat of the National Police Commissioner’s central judicial department, said 113 ...

Ten months after the government suspended sending Cambodian women to work as maids in Malaysia, following numerous reports of abuse by employers and recruitment companies, families say they have completely lost contact with their loved ones who continue to work in Malaysian households. Local rights group Adhoc has recorded ...

When Heng Hak escaped from Phnom Penh maid recruitment center in March 2011, falling several stories in the process, she unwittingly became part of a groundswell-one in a series of mounting cases highlighting severe mismanagment of recruitment agencies, and the abuses incurred by both trainees ...

Heng Hak wore a blank expression yesterday, her hair recently dyed a shade of blonde. Though her appearance suggested composure, a lift of her pant leg revealed the manifestation of the trauma she tried to escape last year. In March 2011, Hak jumped from the third ...

In the space of only about two months, the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia had helped eight Cambodian maids whose employers abused them, the government said yesterday. “The maids have been mistreated by their employers and some have finished their contracts and want to come back home,” Ministry ...

Eight Cambodian fishermen and four Cambodian maids were repatriated from Malaysia on Friday after finding themselves forced to work in slavery-like conditions, despite being promised high-paying jobs there by brokers and recruitment firms. ...

A lone Cambodian woman was found sitting outside Phnom Penh International Airport late on Tuesday night by patrolling police. Smiling to herself, with a vacant expression, she was unable to explain where she came from or what she was doing, but a Malaysian stamp was found ...

Two Malaysian employers of a Cambodian maid were arrested and three others detained this week in Malaysia in connection with the woman’s death, Malaysian police officers said yesterday. Assistant police superintendent Suriman bin Shahrim, said Mey Sichan, 24, was discovered dead on Sunday, and her Malaysian ...

A teenager was one of 13 girls locked inside a recruitment company’s offices in the capital last year after being promised work as a maid in Malaysia, she told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. The court yesterday tried three people over alleged illegal detention and human ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call on Tuesday to strengthen cooperation among ASEAN members to protect the rights of migrant workers echoed recent comments by rights groups who say further protections are necessary as the 2015 deadline for an integrated economic community looms. As that deadline approaches, ...