Indonesian nationals rescued from a Phnom Penh scam compound say they were targeting Facebook users every day to cheat them out of thousands of dollars. Most are relieved to have gotten away from the criminal work and threat of violence that hovered over them.
Phnom Penh is planning a colossal flyover on St. 271 that would cost $36.8 million and take three years to build. For half the cost, the whole 13 km of the ring road can be transformed with bus lanes, cycleways and pleasant sidewalks — and actually reduce congestion, writes Future Forum’s Sek Aronsakda.
Nearly 9,000 phones were seized from a Sihanoukville compound and barbed wire cut from the notorious “Chinatown” area. As human trafficking raids target compounds across the city, residents say other buildings appear to be quietly emptying of foreign workers.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court will this week try 37 CNRP leaders, former lawmakers, party activists and supporters for alleged plotting against the state, marking the fifth mass trial the court has initiated against members of the dissolved political opposition.
Sitting alone in a small wooden house, Kham Salong, 37, says she has struggled without her husband, but still fully supports the environmental work he pursued that landed him in jail.
Marker poles have begun to be laid through the center of the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary for the construction of a major power transmission line. Members of a community protected area disrupted by the project fear oncoming harm for wildlife and communities.
Residents of a Phnom Penh community swarmed a police car when plainclothes officers tried to arrest a local 18-year-old for drugs in May. It’s not the only community that has resisted official raids in recent months, and police have launched a review.
Abortions have been legal in Cambodia since 1997, but social, cultural and religious stigmas are preventing women from accessing them in safe settings. Cambodia needs information campaigns that tackle the stigmas keeping women silent, writes Future Forum’s Heng Molika.
Years of political pressure preceded opposition Kem Sokha’s arrest on September 3, 2017, which came amid a year of escalating incidents. Five years since that day, his treason trial drags on with the country’s political opposition cowed by arrests and toothless in the face of a dominant ruling party.
A Vietnamese family took out loans against their family home to help their son escape enslavement in Cambodia. They scrambled to organize a cross-border rescue from a scam syndicate accused of torture and trafficking, asking VOD for assistance.
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