geovalin

Foreign nationals are being trafficked to Cambodia through online scams, and some are subject to torture and even death. Survivors and human rights experts are calling for law enforcement to take action. Recent escapes and rescues of foreigners working for criminal syndicates in Cambodia's casinos and other businesses have exposed an extreme problem with human trafficking in the Southeast Asian country. Many of the victims were lured by online scams. Last week, Cambodian police arrested 15 Thais wanted for cyberfraud and working illegally from a compound in Sihanoukville following a request from the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. The arrests came as Cambodia and police forces from different countries in the region step up their efforts to rescue their citizens and shut down trafficking syndicates. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia Vitit Muntarbhorn, who concluded an 11-day mission to the country in late August, said that human trafficking victims were experiencing a "living hell," in which many were tortured or even killed. read more https://www.dw.com/en/cambodia-human-trafficking-crisis-driven-by-cyberscams/a-63092938

Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities have ordered all owners and managers of buildings to record details regarding all foreigners who are staying and working in the premises and register the information with local officials before September 24. Included in the order issued on Friday, was the instruction for owners to also send updates on the foreigner’s status to local authorities. Preah Sihanouk provincial hall spokesman Kheang Phearum said yesterday that authorities have given landlords and managers 14 days to submit the information to local authorities. “If the owner fails to cooperate and allows foreigners without proper documentation to live and work in their building, they will be prosecuted,” Phearum said. Authorities issued the order to uncover any foreigners who have no passport or visa to stay and work in Cambodia and to prevent human trafficking, forced labour, sex trafficking, confinement or torture occurring on the property. The order is to ensure public order and safety for not only locals but also foreigners who reside and work in Cambodia, especially in Preah Sihanouk province. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501148964/preah-sihanouk-drive-to-register-foreigners/

Flood water levels in Battambang, Preah Vihear, and Banteay Meanchey provinces’ vulnerable areas are receding to well below the 14-metre danger mark. The three provinces have been having to bear the brunt of constant flooding due to constant and heavy downpours this wet season and made worse by water spilling over from Thailand when the country is forced to open their sluice gates to mediate its flood situation. Cambodian authorities, nevertheless, remain alert and on standby for emergency and rescue operations. In Battambang province, the water level has receded to 10 metres from the danger mark of 14 metres. Battambang deputy governor Uy Sotheary said yesterday some roads remain under water but no evacuations had been carried out. “Flash flood is not worrisome now, but I don’t think it is all over until this rainy season ends,” he said. He said floodings may recur if the province is hit by consecutive rainfall. Banteay Meanchey province is down to 6.68 metres with danger marked at 7.5 metres. Banteay Meanchey Department of Water Resources deputy chief Lay Sothy said flood water is draining slowly because of the water-soaked land. “The land cannot absorb more water and it can be flooded again when there is too much rain. READ MORE https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501148834/flood-water-levels-going-down-but-authorities-remain-on-standby/

Cambodia Phnom Penh, Cambodia/Washington — Cambodia has long had a problem with its own citizens being trafficked into nearby countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, where they work in slave-like conditions. But stamping out foreign-run trafficking rings within its borders is a new phenomenon, and Phnom Penh's ability to disrupt the criminal networks could have wide-reaching consequences for its regional standing, experts told VOA Khmer. Jason Tower, the Burma country director for the United States Institute of Peace, said Chinese criminal networks have expanded their footprints in relatively lawless pockets of Southeast Asia in recent years, including in Cambodia. A crackdown on online gambling in China pushed many actors out of China and into relatively unregulated areas of Southeast Asia, he said, and then COVID-19 suddenly halted the flow of labor, tourists and gamblers from China, forcing what were effectively organized crime rings to seek other sources of income. In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen's government announced its own ban on online gambling operations in 2019, forcing some Chinese investors in the sector to come up with alternate business plans. Chinese embassies across the region began reporting an uptick in kidnappings of Chinese nationals early in the pandemic, Tower said, soon followed by reports of trafficking, abuse and enslavement of victims from countries across the region. "As the pandemic went along, more and more evidence that this is really a regional crisis came to light," Tower said, "that this was very much the … work of transnational criminal groups who are trafficking people across borders, holding them in these zones in slave-like labor conditions and forcing them either to perpetrate scams or to pay up in large amounts of money to secure their freedom." Chou Bun Eng, a senior Interior Ministry official who heads Cambodia's National Committee for Counter-Trafficking, told VOA Khmer on Friday that Cambodian authorities have arrested more than 60 foreign suspects related to a human trafficking network in the country. She pointed out that not all the arrests involved human trafficking; some were linked to labor contract disputes. She didn't specify the suspects' nationalities, saying some had been deported and others were being held for prosecution. A day earlier, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said foreigners have deceptively used Cambodians to commit cybercrimes. "Cambodia is a victim, since 99.9% of the masterminds are not Cambodians," he said. VOA contacted the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh via email for comments on the trafficking scams but did not receive a response. Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dato' Sri Saifuddin Abdullah said on Friday while meeting with Prak Sokhonn, Cambodia's deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, that there are many Malaysians who come to Cambodia to do business and work successfully. Only a small number of Malaysians are victims of the job scams. Complaints for months After months of mounting reports of workers from across Asia being trafficked into Chinese cybercrime rings operating in Cambodia, the country's interior minister on August 22 announced a more aggressive response. Sar Kheng said that officials were being deployed nationwide to check hotels, casinos and other establishments for potential trafficking victims and that some suspected traffickers had already been arrested. Sar Kheng made his remarks shortly after Taipei complained to Phnom Penh that more than 300 Taiwanese citizens were being held captive in Cambodia after being lured into supposedly high-paying tech jobs, only to end up at call centers seeking to defraud Chinese targets. Other foreign governments had raised concerns with Phnom Penh about their citizens being trapped in Chinese-run scams based in Cambodia. Indonesia requested a meeting – on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in early August – over its citizens being trafficked into Cambodia. It announced on Aug. 23 that it had repatriated 241 Indonesians trafficked by online scammers and prevented another 214 potential victims from traveling to Cambodia. Since the start of August, the Philippines has urged Cambodian authorities to rescue four nationals being held in a casino complex in Koh Kong province. More than 40 Vietnamese nationals escaped from a casino in Kandal province and swam across the Binh Di River into Vietnam on Aug. 18. Hong Kong officials said 10 of its citizens are trafficking victims, according to the South China Morning Post. Cambodia's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Chum Sounry said in the past six months, the ministry has received requests for intervention in forced labor cases from at least nine embassies, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. The interior minister said in a statement on Aug. 26 that Cambodian authorities have rescued about 900 foreign citizens from trafficking rings this year. Scams and beatings News outlets including Nikkei Asia and Al Jazeera have detailed horrific abuse being perpetrated by Chinese captors in Cambodia, from brutal beatings to terrorizing victims with tasers and electric batons and sexually assaulting trafficked women. Victims are often held in heavily guarded compounds with razor wire or bars to keep people from coming or going. Many of those being trafficked are fairly well-educated, as the scams they are being forced to carry out generally require good language skills — often Chinese — and they need to be literate to follow scripts used to dupe unexpecting victims. Many are being recruited through ads for "tech jobs" promising placement either in Southeast Asia or elsewhere. The scams include: "pig butchering," in which a mark is wooed into a romantic relationship to share bank details; seeking investors for fraudulent schemes; selling membership to fake sex clubs; and posing as government officials demanding unpaid fees or fines. While it's unclear how much Sar Kheng's moves will disrupt the illegal operations, it's at least a sign that Cambodia is responding to the mounting concern from its neighbors, said Tower. "It does seem that following a bit of international pressure, that you're starting now to see Cambodian authorities come out of it at least saying, 'Yeah, look, we're doing some things. We're taking some steps to address this,'" he said. Global fallout Cambodia has already faced global fallout from its failure to confront new trends in human trafficking. Cambodia was downgraded to Tier 3 in the U.S. State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons report, meaning the government does not meet minimum standards in its efforts to combat human trafficking and "are not making significant efforts to do so." "Authorities did not investigate or hold criminally accountable any officials involved in the large majority of credible reports of complicity, in particular with unscrupulous business owners who subjected thousands of men, women and children throughout the country to human trafficking in entertainment establishments, brick kilns and online scam operations," the report said. The consequences for Cambodia if it fails to rein in the trafficking networks could be severe, said Am Sam Ath, deputy director of Licadho, a local human rights group. "If Cambodia doesn't have commitment and high willingness [to crack down on scammers], it will affect the image of Cambodia, investment, tourism due to security and safety," he told VOA Khmer. 'Expert clever criminals' Vitit Muntarbhorn, the new United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Cambodia, spoke in an interview with VOA Khmer in Phnom Penh on Aug. 26 about the worrying trend of cyber scams and human trafficking during his first visit in the role to the country. He also encouraged cooperating with victims' home countries and better training Cambodian officials to identify victims and gather information on the scamming rings. "We need something more specialized and with a certain capacity and resourcefulness," Vitit Muntarbhorn said. Pech Pisey, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, said the ruling party could also pay a high price at home if the trafficking rings continue unimpeded. "People don't want to see Cambodia used by international criminals to operate any fierce criminal activities, including human trafficking," he said. "It is linked as a system, so it needs a systematic solution," Pech Pisey said. "The international criminals like that are very expert and very clever." Tower of the U.S. Institute of Peace said a failure to confront the traffickers now could allow the practice to expand — in Cambodia and across the region. Governments could start warning their citizens against travel or relocation to countries with a high trafficking risk, given the steep political and security costs of having their citizens end up trapped or enslaved abroad, he said. "Because ultimately everyone has an interest in being able to protect their nationals," Tower said, "and it's a pretty big loss of face for any country who sort of sees a significant number of their nationals trafficked or subjected to these sorts of circumstances on foreign soil." https://www.voanews.com/a/global-pressure-mounts-on-cambodia-over-foreign-run-trafficking-scamming-rings-/6739192.html

Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Chhim Sotheara brings mental health care to Cambodia’s rural areas. Cambodian psychiatrist Chhim Sotheara, one of four winners of this year’s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, was surprised to learn he had won the award and didn’t know he had been nominated to receive it, he told RFA in an interview this week. “At first, I didn’t believe it, because I hadn’t applied for it,” Sotheara said. “I thought at first it was an online scam,” he said. “This is a valuable award. Only a few people in Asia have received it, and it is an honor for our country, as Cambodia will be recognized through the award,” Sotheara said. The award also acknowledges the efforts he and his NGO have made over the last two decades to help the people of Cambodia, he said. “All our employees are so happy, and this will encourage us now to work even harder to deserve having received the award,” he added. Established in 1958 and named after the Philippines’ seventh president who died in a plane crash a year earlier, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is considered Asia’s most prestigious prize. It honors people across the region who have done groundbreaking work in their fields. Also receiving the award this year are Filipina pediatrician Bernadette J. Madrid, French anti-pollution activist Gary Bencheghib, and Japanese ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori. All four are expected to attend an awards ceremony in Manila Nov. 30. Sotheara, 54, was among the first generation of psychiatrists to graduate in Cambodia after the 1975-79 period of Khmer Rouge rule that killed an estimated 1.7 million people and left many thousands of survivors deeply traumatized, many of them living in remote rural areas of the country. Now executive director of Cambodia’s Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO), Sotheara developed the concept of baksbat, or “broken courage” — a post-traumatic state of fear, passivity and avoidance considered more relevant and particular to the Cambodian experience. Sotheara Chhim meets with a patient in a rural area of Cambodia, in an undated photo. Credit: Sotheara Chhim Underserved rural areas Switching to clinical psychiatry after working for a time as a surgeon, Sotheara later quit his job at a state hospital after he was approached for help by a patient coming from a remote community and became aware of the needs going unmet in Cambodia’s countryside. Sotheara’s NGO now delivers treatment directly to people’s homes and communities, he said. “When I help one patient, I also help his family and community, because when one person experiences mental issues, we need to treat the whole family.” Many Cambodians experience mental health problems, and Sotheara’s TPO has not been able to respond to all their requests for help, he said. “But since we started, we’ve improved a lot.” There were only 10 psychiatrists at Sotheara’s own graduation, he said. “Now we have around 100 psychiatrists, but we can’t answer all the demands made of us because many of those experts like working in the city, and not many work out in the communities.” Around 80% of Cambodia’s population live in rural areas, and service must be provided to those people, he added. Also speaking to RFA, TPO employee Taing Sopheap said she has worked with Chhim Sotheara for the past 15 years and has seen him sacrifice himself both physically and financially to carry out his NGO’s work. “If a case is urgent and important, he will work on it regardless of the cost in time to his team or to other cases,” she said. Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Richard Finney. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/award-09092022144841.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

They say they’ve lost faith in Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government leaders. The relatives of jailed opposition members and protesting casino workers in Cambodia are appealing for help with their cases from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest son – widely seen as next in line to lead the nation – saying they no longer have faith in the current administration. A group of activists from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), whose cases rights groups say are politically motivated, sent a letter to Royal Cambodia Army Commander Hun Manet in late August, urging him to ensure their freedom and allow them to participate in a general election slated for 2023. The wife of jailed CNRP activist Kong Mas, Kol Sat, who along with other relatives has held regular demonstrations calling for the release of their loved ones, told RFA Khmer that she had begun writing directly to Hun Manet to intervene in her husband’s case because she had given up on Hun Sen and hopes that his son will be more reasonable if he becomes prime minister. “To me when Hun Sen is out, there is only Hun Manet who can help because no one can challenge him. He controls the military and the country,” she said, adding that she believes Hun Manet is influential enough to free her husband and restore democracy to the country. Kong Mas and the other jailed CNRP activists had been targeted by Hun Sen in the years following the Supreme Court’s dissolution of the party in November 2017. The court also placed a five-year ban precluding 118 CNRP lawmakers from participating in political activities. Laid off workers from the NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh who have been striking for the past eight months also recently reached out to Hun Manet for help in getting reinstated to their jobs. In August, authorities violently clashed with around 100, mostly female, of the workers as they sought to protest in front of their former workplace, injuring several of them. The group’s petitions to the government for assistance have largely gone unanswered. One of the workers told RFA on condition of anonymity that she sees Hun Manet as a powerful figure within the ruling Cambodian People’s party (CPP) who can help them resolve their labor dispute. “Hun Manet is a prime minister candidate. I want him to help as a guardian or father,” she said. “We have already submitted petitions to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the National Assembly but we need additional intervention.” RFA could not reach Hun Manet for comment and questions sent to him through Facebook messenger went unanswered on Friday. In July, Cambodia’s National Assembly advanced a proposed change to the country’s constitution eliminating the need for the legislature to approve a prime minister designated by the king. Critics said the change would all but ensure Hun Manet succeeds his father, who has ruled the country since 1985 and is now 69. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said the casino workers and opposition party activists are desperate for help and shifted their efforts to Hun Manet because they have lost hope in Hun Sen and other government leaders. He said he also believes that Hun Manet can help resolve the disputes if he intervenes. “To show the public that the prime ministerial candidate can do the job, [the requests] should be honored,” Rong Chhun said. However, CPP spokesman Sok Ey San on Friday dismissed calls by activists for Hun Manet’s help, saying he cannot intervene in the disputes because he is not prime minister. He also accused opposition party activists and workers from NagaWorld of breaching the law. “I welcome their support [of Hun Manet] but if they support him only for illegal benefits, it can’t be done,” he said. “His Excellency can’t resolve illegal requests.” Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/power-transfer-09092022175427.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

According to the latest human trafficking rescue operation reports, authorities have rescued more than 100 Malaysians and 50 Filipinos who were lured to Cambodia and held as prisoners. Out of 148 Malaysians reported missing, 118 have been rescued from human traffickers while 30 remain missing. According to Malaysia’s foreign minister, 24 citizens were sent back home on Friday and 29 others remain at immigration centers in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville in Cambodia. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia Saifuddin Abdullah said that 65 citizens had previously been brought home. Others await the completion of investigations and paperwork processing. The victims, who are mostly young people, were lured by traffickers who promised them jobs with “high wages,” when in reality, they were exploited and held as prisoners. read more https://www.yahoo.com/video/118-malaysians-50-filipinos-rescued-234754333.html

Cambodia on Friday decided to cancel the annual Water Festival, scheduled from Nov. 7 to 9 in the capital Phnom Penh, according to a government's press statement. This was the third consecutive year that the kingdom called off the premier event in Phnom Penh. However, provincial authorities could organize boat races in their respective localities on that occasion, the statement added. Water Festival is one of the largest festivals in the Southeast Asian nation, attracting hundreds of thousands of people to the capital to enjoy a regatta along a stretch of the Tonle Sap River in front of the Royal Palace. Cambodia reported a daily record of seven new local COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the national case tally to 137,696, with 134,557 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the health ministry said, adding that no new deaths have been reported since April. read more https://english.news.cn/20220909/1cf4f805dbeb42f4883c175d56b44ff3/c.html

A US national who was a casino manager has died after apparently suffering a heart attack after a fall. Authorities say that Charles McCallion, 85, died of a heart attack after slipping in his hotel room at Golden Hill hotel in Komreang district, Battambang after visiting Phnom Preuk mountain on September 4th. The man was taken to Trang Health Center in Sen Village, Trang Commune, Komreang District, Battambang Province, where he died. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501148495/foreigner-dies-after-fall/

His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, has sent a message of condolence to King Charles III on the occasion of the passing of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. In his message, The King says: ‘Majesty, It is with profound sadness that I learned of the passing of Your Majesty’s beloved Mother, Her Majesty QUEEN ELIZABETH II. On behalf of the people of the Kingdom of Cambodia, my August Mother Her Majesty NORODOM MONINEATH SIHANOUK and I wish to convey to Your Majesty, the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland our most sincere condolences and deepest sympathy. We pay a respectful homage to the Memory of Her Majesty QUEEN ELIZABETH II, the longest-serving Head of State in the world, who shall be remembered for Her great and constant devotion to Her Motherland. May Her soul rest in Peace. read more : https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501148421/his-majesty-king-norodom-sihamoni-sends-a-message-of-deepest-sympathy-on-the-death-of-queen-elizabeth-ii/

Millions of dollars were raised from the thousands of doomsday believers, many of whom sold their property believing that the end of the world was near, and gathered on a farm of a League for Democracy Party (LDP) politician near Kulen Mountain. In an interview with Khmer Times yesterday, LDP working group member, Kem Chaydy, 44, admitted that the party raised millions of dollars from the people, estimated to be about 20,000 at its height, at the doomsday gathering. He said funds raised were not “about cheating anybody or to take advantage of them, but it is for the sake of everybody”. “The funds are not going into the pockets of LDP party leaders, the funds are to support everyone on the farm to survive the catastrophic flood. “We all believe our Brahma Khem Veasna that money is worthless since the world is going to end by flood,” he said. According to Chaydy, all those who gathered at the farm came together as “we are one”. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501147605/doomsday-organisers-raised-millions-from-followers/

The National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT) is urging the public, national and international communities, and foreign diplomatic missions and embassies in Cambodia, to provide information on human trafficking and other transnational crimes by contacting Cambodian authorities through the hotline and social media. Chou Bun Eng, a secretary of state of the Ministry of Interior and vice-chairwoman of NCCT, said yesterday the public could seek assistance via the Facebook pages of “Samdech Krolahom Sar Kheng, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister”, “General Commissariat of National Police” and “General Department of Immigration – GDI”. Calls can also be made to Hotline: 119, 117, and (+855) 031 201 2345, or the English Hotline via Telegram (+855) 097 9117 117. “We receive about 1,000 calls on our hotlines and we look at each and every case and those that are bona fide will be handed to police for action to be taken.” “In the past year, Cambodian authorities were besieged with requests for intervention from foreigners and foreign diplomatic missions and embassies to search and rescue their citizens. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501147600/117-119-is-hot-but-foreigners-using-the-english-language-to-report-crime-are-to-do-so-via-telegram-855-097-9117-117/

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. Chhorn Phalla became one of Cambodia’s prominent forest defenders, fronting a press conference two years ago about local authorities’ alleged complicity in illegal deforestation, violence against him at a public forum, and having a shelter burned down on his plantation. He filed a lawsuit against 16 people in his commune, including his commune chief, deputy village chief, a police officer, farmers and wood traders, over the allegations. But he was the one who ended up imprisoned, first sentenced in November to five years for illegally clearing land. That conviction was overturned by the Appeal Court last month, but he remains in jail after the Ratanakiri Provincial Court issued a separate verdict just a week before the appeal decision. read more https://vodenglish.news/wife-mourns-ratanakiri-environmentalists-imprisonment/

The continued presence of Cambodia on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) money laundering “grey list” and its recent addition to a Human Trafficking blacklist is harming the country’s international reputation and driving away investors, according to Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng. In comments reported by The Khmer Times overnight, the Deputy PM admitted there was no denying such assessments of Cambodia’s ratings in this regard and insisted more must be done to address the issues. “There are two problems of ours today for the image of [Cambodia],” he said. “Not supporting the assessment, but we also cannot deny.” Human Trafficking has become headline news across the region in recent months with multiple reports of individuals being tricked into accepting jobs in Cambodia only to be held against their will. Many have been linked to some of the dozens of casinos located in places like Sihanoukville and in border casinos in Poipet and Bavet, among others. read more https://www.asgam.com/index.php/2022/09/09/cambodias-money-laundering-human-trafficking-ratings-negatively-impacting-global-reputation-deputy-pm/

Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) recorded 40 casualties from landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) in the first eight months of this year, an increase of 21 % compared with 33 over the same period last year. CMAA said that 18 people were maimed and killed by landmines and another 22 by ERW. Ten people were killed, 23 sustained injuries and seven amputated, CMAA said, noting that there were 27 men, 12 teenage boys and a woman. The people were killed and injured by the landmines and ERW because they were ploughing the fields to cultivate crops, demining and stepping on landmines while tending their cattle, said CMAA. The government has committed to reaching the country’s mine-free goal by 2025. Cambodia has so far removed landmines or explosive remnants of war (ERW) from approximately 2,385 square kilometres of land, which are now being used for productive purposes such as agriculture, resettlement, roads, schools, and other infrastructure development. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501146990/40-casualties-from-erw-landmines-since-january/

The number of people classified as poor has gone up by 25 percent in the 10 months from June 2020 to April 2021 in Cambodia due to income decline and job losses following the spread of Covid-19, said a survey by the Asia Foundation. In June 2020, the Ministry of Planning estimated 2.3 million people (560,000 households) as eligible for the Covid-19 Cash Transfer Programme. This number increased to 2.6 million people (640,000 households) in October 2020, and to 2.7 million people (694,000 households) in April 2021, it said. “Over 10 months, the number of people classified as ‘newly poor’ increased by almost 25 percent,” said the Foundation while announcing the results of the ‘Revisiting the Pandemic Rapid Survey’ on tourism sector MSMEs with a sample size of over 1,000. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501146871/25-jump-in-newly-poor-in-10-months-during-covid-19/

Over 20,000 followers, including teens, turned up at a farmhouse after a politician-turned-doomsday prophet predicted the end of humanity on August 30 When his prediction failed, most supporters left but some parents continue to await their children’s return and have urged the government to intervene Scores of parents in Cambodia have urged the government to help bring back their children camping at a farmhouse owned by a politician-turned-doomsday prophet amid concerns they had been indoctrinated. Khem Veasna, head of the League for Democracy Party (LDP), claimed a devastating flood could wipe out humanity on August 30, and called on his supporters to take refuge at his mountainside plantation in Siem Reap province. More than 20,000 followers, including teenagers and Cambodians working in Thailand and Japan, returned to Cambodia and flocked to the estate to escape the impending disaster. Veasna’s prediction, however, failed spectacularly. It prompted most of his adherents, who consider him to be Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, to leave the facility. But worried parents said their children still had not returned home, despite officials ordering them to vacate the property over the weekend. read more https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3191658/cambodian-teens-are-camping-out-cult-leader-their-parents-want

Chinese investors and fugitives are behind the crime network Thousands of victims across Asia have been lured by job scams and occasionally love cons, through messaging apps, kidnapped and forced to work for the scam network in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, a special economic zone under China’s Belt and Road Initiatives. Following the arrest of She Zhijiang, a wanted Chinese billionaire running a mega gambling ring across Asia, by Bangkok police in mid-August 2022, Cambodia’s human trafficking and scam operations dominated headlines in many Asia countries, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Malaysia, Vietnam and more, as their citizens have been conned and enslaved through a cross-border crime network. Many of the scam victims are Taiwanese: Some of the individuals who have fallen prey to job scams have beaten, electrocuted, or enslaved if they do not perform satisfactorily. It is known that at least 6 victims paid a ransom of US$20,000 each to secure their release and made it back to Taiwan.https://t.co/VGKH3KzgnL — Focus Taiwan (CNA English News) (@Focus_Taiwan) August 25, 2022 read more https://globalvoices.org/2022/09/07/what-is-the-relation-between-cambodias-human-trafficking-scam-and-chinas-belt-and-road-initiatives/

A compassionate Thai man says he feels deceived after he tried to help a disabled Cambodian beggar get treatment only to discover he earned over 100,000 baht per month illegally. Kannarat “Gun” Pongpaiboonwet, aka Gun Jom Palang, last week announced on Facebook that he would contact the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (M-Society) to help the Cambodian man get treatment after seeing a video of him on Thai social media walking doubled over in a market in Chon Buri province. Watch the video here. Many people wanted to donate and help him get proper treatment after Gun highlighted his plight. But Gun was horrified to find out that the man had an organized family begging operation in place after talking with people from the M-Society. M-Society told Gun that the man, 47 year old Kom Pormee, was well known to the Thai authorities and had been arrested and sent back to Cambodia four times already. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501146576/handicapped-cambodian-beggar-illegally-earning-over-100000-baht-a-month-sent-back-to-cambodia/

The mother of a 20-year-old who died by suicide on Monday denied a report that he had gone to politician Khem Veasna’s farm fearing the end of the world. Matt Nop, 43, said her son was on a long-planned trip to Siem Reap last week with his uncles, coinciding with Veasna’s prophecy about flooding that would swallow all of Earth except his farm. The president of the League for Democracy Party has turned himself a self-styled holy figure. But her son Marn Matt, 20, was not a Veasna devotee, Nop said in tears on Tuesday, denying a news story that he died by suicide after the family criticized him for going to the farm. “I can say he is not an LDP supporter. He is a good child and a good student. … He loves his family, friends, and neighbors. And everyone loves him back,” the mother said. “It might be a misunderstanding here. Of course, his father did tell him that he should have not been to Siem Reap at this time because people could get confused that he went there to gather at Khem Veasna’s farm.” “He is gone now. Please let him rest peacefully up there.” Sem Saroeun, chief of Toul Khpos commune in Kampong Chhnang, said as far as he was aware the son had not gone to Veasna’s farm. “He and his family are not LDP supporters. And his family loves him so much. read more https://vodenglish.news/mother-denies-her-son-supported-khem-veasna-before-death/

Among the spinach crops at a rural Cambodian school garden, children test their maths skills while weighing produce -- but as food prices rise, the vegetable patch has become a safety net for struggling families. Long before Covid restrictions ravaged the economy, malnutrition and poverty stalked Cambodia's youth -- the legacy of decades of conflict and instability following the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule in the 1970s. Food insecurity has worsened since Russia's invasion of Ukraine stoked global shortages and inflation. The World Food Programme (WFP) says the prices of local staples have shot up in the past year: duck eggs by more than 20 percent and cooking oil by almost 40 percent. Noodle seller Chhon Puthy, 31, has lost half her income during the pandemic and worries about her children's health. "We parents had to reduce our rations sometimes," said the mother-of-two from the village of Chroy Neang Nguon, about two hours from Siem Reap. In recent months, her family has come to rely on the garden and free breakfast programme at her children's school to ease the financial pressure. "This community depends on the meal because every morning parents are busy with farming and could not cook for their kids," she said. Garden lifeline Remote schools in Siem Reap province use the gardens to teach pupils life skills such as cultivation and cooking. read more https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220906-school-gardens-a-lifeline-for-hungry-cambodian-children

They say local authorities in their home provinces have refused to help them resolve the issue. More than 1,000 people from two Cambodian provinces staged a protest on Tuesday outside the Ministry of Justice in Phnom Penh, calling on the government to resolve a long-running dispute over land taken by politically connected businesspeople, sources in the country said. The residents of several hundred villages in Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces west of Phnom Penh contend that they did not receive adequate compensation for farmland seized to build an airport and have been forced into poverty as a result. Land disputes are common in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Government officials routinely seize land for lucrative real estate ventures, leaving displaced locals with little or no recourse. The villagers said they took their decade-long grievances to the capital city after provincial authorities turned down their request for help. They raised banners imploring Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, to intervene and deliver justice, saying the ongoing dispute has caused them financial hardship. They also petitioned the Ministry of Justice and Hun Sen’s Cabinet, requesting that charges against more than 30 representatives of the villagers be dropped. Authorities arrested the representatives in September 2021 during a violent roundup of protesters in Kandal province, which surrounds the capital region. They were demonstrating against land the government took from them and gave to a businessman with ties to the autocratic leader to build an airport. Det Huor, a representative of the Koh Kong villagers, told RFA that the 1,000 people who protested on Tuesday also intended to march to the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, but were stopped by security officers. She said villagers involved in the land dispute can no longer afford to send their children to school. She and other villagers have been imprisoned for defending their rights, she said. “Villagers’ representatives are the most vulnerable,” she said. “When we demanded [a solution], companies filed complaints to the court. I myself was sentenced to two years in jail and ordered to pay a fine.” The protesters’ banners displayed portraits of Hun Sen and requested he identify villagers as citizens with incomes below the poverty line, so they can receive free medical services and other benefits. They also asked that officials stop pursuing legal action against them and against village representatives in court. Pheap Teng, another representative from Koh Kong, said authorities and wealthy Cambodians used the courts to prosecute the villagers in the land dispute between her community and the provincial airport company owned by Ly Yong Phat, a casino tycoon and senator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Pheap Teng said she worries she will become even more impoverished if the dispute drags on. “Please speed up a solution for my community,” she said. “Only Samdech [an honorific for Hun Sen] can give us a solution with Okhna [honorific] Ly Yong Phat.” RFA couldn’t reach government spokesman Phay Siphan for comment on Tuesday. Soeung Sengkaruna, spokesman for Cambodian rights group Adhoc, said after local authorities neglected the villagers’ entreaties, the residents had to spend a lot of money seeking intervention from the central government to no avail. Because of this, he urged Hun Sen to provide a solution. “People think that only the prime minister can resolve the conflict,” he told RFA. “This is why they urged him to deliver a solution.” Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-dispute-09062022185845.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Floods throughout Cambodia in August claimed the lives of nine people, and forced around 21,000 families with about 83,000 members to evacuate. Phnom Penh (VNA) – Floods throughout Cambodia in August claimed the lives of nine people, and forced around 21,000 families with about 83,000 members to evacuate. In addition, 3,274 homes, 14 schools, seven pagodas and two hospitals, as well as commercial buildings and administrative offices were inundated. Hundreds of hectares of crops were also destroyed. Kun Kim, first vice-president of the National Committee for Disaster Management, said Kandal, Takeo, Svay Rieng, Prey Veng and Phnom Penh were the worst hit by floods. He said that the committee has cooperated with the relevant ministries and sub-national administrations in preparing and intervening to rescue the victims and respond to disasters. read more https://en.vietnamplus.vn/cambodia-august-floods-killing-nine-displacing-around-83000/236753.vnp

An ancient Buddha statue was returned from Thailand to Cambodia after disappearing from the Prasat Bakong district in Siem Reap province more than 30 years ago, and at present, is being kept at Chanbachot Nearam pagoda in Kampong Chhnang province. Sok Thuok, director of the Kampong Chhnang Provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts, said yesterday that the repatriated statue was built during the reign of King Norodom, making the artefact more than 100 years old, made of metal and more than 20 kilogrammes in weight. The Buddha statue was discovered in Thailand by chief monk of Chanbachot Nearam pagoda in Pat Lang village, Kraing Leav commune om Rolea Bier district. Realising that the statue belonged to the Khmer people, he worked with experts and purchased the statue for about 550,000 baht ($14,000) and returned it to Cambodia where a repatriation ceremony in the Buddhist tradition has held on Sunday. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501145506/ancient-buddha-statue-is-back-home/

Cambodia and Thailand are joining hands to push for tourism recovery post-pandemic through the implementation of joint action plan, a senior official said. To realise the goal, a meeting on bilateral tourism cooperation was organised on September 2, the sixth of its kind. Try Chhiv, director of the ministry's Department of International Cooperation and ASEAN, said both sides have agreed on the action plan for tourism cooperation 2023-2025. read more https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia-thailand-agree-2023-25-tourism-recovery-plan