Six entertainment workers told VOD of forced pregnancy tests, pressure to terminate and the experience of self-induced abortions while trying to hold onto jobs. As the women experience potential trauma, the motivation among employers often comes down to superstition: Pregnant women are “four-eyed girls” bringing bad business.
Rath Rott Mony, a translator jailed for two years over his involvement in a controversial documentary on child sex trafficking, was released from a Phnom Penh prison on Friday after completing his sentence.
Street vendors of all stripes around Phnom Penh manufacturing districts say their small businesses are becoming nearly impossible to sustain, one of the many knock-on effects of a decline in the country’s garment industry amid the global pandemic.
While “Comrade Duch” may be remembered for his dramatic courtroom apologies for his crimes against humanity at the Khmer Rouge detention center, some questioned whether the ex-prison chief’s remorse was genuine.
Tens of thousands of garment workers, who are facing slashed work hours and wages amid the global pandemic and economic downturn, will struggle to repay mounting microfinance debt, a new civil society report says.
![A woman holds a sign saying “The pain of the people is the pain of Samdech [Prime Minister Hun Sen]” as nightlife workers filed a petition to the premier’s cabinet asking for aid on June 25, 2020. (Hy Chhay/VOD)](https://vodenglish.news/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-25-nightlife-worker-petition-462x290.jpg)
Many nightlife industry workers — from bartenders to waitresses — have gone months without a stable salary, and some say they are discouraged by the lack of social welfare funding for their sector’s workers.
At his Phnom Penh laundry shop, owner Thy Leanghour exclusively employs people living with disabilities, offering his staff an opportunity to independently earn an income and challenge the biases often associated with disability in the workplace.
About 100 fired garment workers have been guarding their closed factory in shifts since mid-January. They aim to ensure the owner does not sell equipment left inside and disappear with the money before paying workers what they are owed by the end of May.
Forestry watchdogs say they have seen increased logging activity in the Prey Lang sanctuary, especially after independent forest patrollers were stopped by authorities from entering, but officials have defended their ban on unregistered forest patrols.
More than 40 people have been arrested this year in relation to alleged chaos-causing incitement and spreading coronavirus-related “fake news,” a police spokesman said.
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