News

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. ...

The number of complaints filed in Kampong Chhnang province by the families of maids working in Malaysia has jumped exponentially compared to the same period last year, a rights worker told the Post yesterday. Provincial Adhoc coordinator Soum Chankea said 39 requests for the NGO’s intervention ...

The families of two maids working in Malaysia asked Preah Vihear’s anti-human trafficking office and the human rights group Adhoc yesterday to intervene on behalf of their daughters, whom they haven’t seen or heard from since last year, officials said. ...

Chased out of the house by her Malaysian employer, fresh-faced Tieng SaSa, 18, found shelter with an NGO, escaping alleged abuse at the hands of her employer that included binding her hands and beating her feet with a metal club until her bones broke. Three months ...

A Memorandum of Understanding aimed at protecting maids sent to Malaysia may make headway in the next two months, a government official has said. Secretary of State for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs San Arun said a meeting with Malaysian officials on an MoU is expected ...

The director and employees of a maid recruitment agency were handed sentences of up to five years by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday and ordered to pay compensation for illegally detaining an under-aged girl. Presiding judge Duch Kimsorn said Century Manpower’s director Oung Sakirin, chief of administration ...

A draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) drawn up by Malaysia to regulate maids working in the country does not sufficiently protect their rights and needs improvements, an official at the Labor Ministry said on Thursday. Malaysian officials drew up the MoU between the two governments following ...

A Malaysian couple were charged Friday with the murder of their Cambodian maid, who police suspect may have died of prolonged starvation. The alleged abuse case of Mey Sichan, who would have turned 24 in September, is one of many that have caused both Cambodia and ...

Protecting human rights, especially those of Cambodian migrant workers traversing borders to countries such as Malaysia, dominated discussions at yesterday’s ASEAN Peoples’ Forum, one of two competing pre-summit forums that claim to be giving a voice to Cambodians. Speaking at yesterday’s forum, Seng Sakda, director-general ...

The negotiations between Cambodia and Malaysia over a bilateral agreement on improved working conditions for Cambodian migrant maids are slowly progressing as both governments are exchanging draft agreements, according to officials from both countries. Ministry of Labor Secretary of State Othsman Hassan said that Cambodia recently ...

After a year of mounting concern over the treatment of migrant workers both within and outside Cambodia, the Ministry of Labor, NGOs and recruitment agencies yesterday reached an agreement on standardized contracts aimed at minimizing the possibility for exploitation. The groups agreed on a contract between ...

About 177,000 Cambodian men and women were working abroad as of the end of 2010, and about $180 million was remitted to Cambodia from 126,000 migrant workers in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea last year, according to a letter written by Prime Minister Hun ...

The government has approved Qatar as a destination for the growing number of Cambodian labourers seeking employment overseas. Workers will not be recruited for housekeeping services, however, private sector officials said. The abuse of maids in Malaysia – many of whom were reportedly under-aged – has ...

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia has for the first time agreed to open an inquiry into the death of a Cambodian maid, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua said yesterday, calling the investigation “a positive sign.” Ms Sochua said that while she had in the past sent ...

The Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA) plans to propose a set of measures to the government that would put the association in charge of improving protection for Cambodian maids working in Malaysia. A human rights worker, however, disapproved of the plan because it only involved ...

In what is becoming an all too familiar tale, another mother of a domestic worker who was sent to Malaysia has filed a complaint alleging her daughter is being exploited. Chea Si Yan said yesterday she wanted her daughter and goddaughter to come home because they ...

The government was urged yesterday not to start sending domestic helpers to Malaysia again until it had a Memorandum of Understand with Kuala Lumpur guaranteeing protection of Cambodian migrant workers there. Ya Navuth, executive director of Coordination of Action Research on Aids and Mobility, also said ...

Malaysia wants to reach bilateral agreements with Cambodia and other labor-sending countries that would allow foreign maids to keep their passports, limit their work-day to eight hours and give them one day off per week, Malaysian news media reported yesterday. Malaysian Human Resources Minister Datuk Subramaniam ...

As reports of the death of yet another Cambodian maid in Malaysia surfaced, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua said yesterday that a bilateral agreement between Cambodian and Malaysia was necessary if the two countries were serious about protecting the rights of Cambodian domestic workers living in ...

A Malaysian parliamentarian has lashed out at his own government and police for their “callous approach” in failing to take proper action in response to the deaths of nine Cambodian domestic workers in their country this year, Charles Santiago, a member of the opposition Democratic Action ...

The Cambodian embassy in Malaysia has reported that nine migrant domestic workers have died there this year, including one on Sunday, a rights activist and an opposition parliamentarian visiting Kuala Lumpur said yesterday. After a press conference held by the Malaysian rights group Tenaganita, Moeun Tola, ...

As reports continue to flood in detailing rampant abuse of Cambodian migrant workers abroad, the Cambodian Migrant Workers’ Association (CMWA) said it would be registering with the Ministry of Interior today as the country’s first migrant workers representative organisation, according to its director. “The idea is ...

More than two weeks after a ban on sending maids to Malaysia began, work on a bilateral agreement that would protect Cambodian maids working in Malaysia has not begun, officials said yesterday. Ho Vuthy, deputy director general at the Ministry of Labor’s department of labor, said ...

Two new claims of abuse of Cambodian maids employed in Malaysia have emerged since Friday, including one case of a woman who returned home with severe mental trauma following alleged mistreatment by her Malaysian employer, the victims’ families said. Iy Thar, a villager from Kompong Thom ...