Amid targeted raids and arrests against scam and human trafficking operations in Cambodia, accounts from victims and a rescue group indicate that at least some syndicates are going to great lengths to relocate workers to a new country to evade capture.
Violations of workers’ rights in special economic zones are not uncommon but often shrouded by their inaccessibility, creating challenges for employees trying to set up unions at the risk of losing their jobs.
Po Hin Lean was gunned down in a rice field in the middle of the night this week. The killing likely relates to a heavy-handed police crackdown on illegal fishing. The man’s political affiliations also cast shadows over his death.
Floodwaters have inundated a small relocation site inhabited by ethnic Vietnamese residents. The site has no running water or electricity, and a promised garment factory that was supposed to provide the 150-odd families with an employment opportunity remains half finished. To make matters worse, permanent residency cards given to residents are not being recognized by public utilities and private businesses, illustrating the discrimination faced by one of Cambodia’s largest ethnic groups.
Dozens of foreign workers were taken from a central Phnom Penh condominium under heavy police presence and driven straight to the airport on Thursday.
As police raids have hit known scam locations and “illegal gambling” dens across the country, residents of casino haven Bavet say they have seen buses ferrying in hundreds of workers over the last few weeks to existing casinos and alleged scam compounds in the border town.
A protest drawing several thousand people from across Angkor Archaeological Park took an abrupt turn Friday, when the land management minister said there were no plans for a mass relocation from the park’s Preah Dak commune – days after residents said authorities had told them the opposite.
“I wouldn’t hold a glass of champagne and say ‘Cheers.’” A somewhat experimental effort with a $330-million price tag, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal straddled controversy, the pursuit of justice and bitter disappointment before its final verdict against the last-surviving regime leader on trial.
Angkor residents are worried about being displaced from their work and public amenities if they move 20 km to an underdeveloped resettlement site. The state denies these are evictions, but its campaign to clean up “illegal constructions” leaves residents with little choice.
Hundreds of foreign nationals have been removed from Phnom Penh compounds as police acknowledged detention, torture, extortion and human trafficking in several arrests.
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