Dozens of casino workers flee Cambodia by swimming to Vietnam

[geovalin]

 

• About 40 staff at the Golden Phoenix Entertainment Casino in Kandal province fought off security guards to escape – one was swept away by the current
• According to state media, about 250 other Vietnamese workers were rescued from unscrupulous employers in Cambodia in the first half of this year

 

Dozens of Vietnamese casino workers allegedly forced to toil without pay in Cambodia have fled back to their homeland by swimming across a river, authorities in Phnom Penh said Friday. About 40 staff with the Golden Phoenix Entertainment Casino in Kandal province – which neighbours Vietnam – fought off security guards to escape, leaving one missing after being swept away by the current, Vietnamese state media reported.

 

“These people might have been here working illegally,” Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng told reporters. “They were promised salaries, but they did not get what they were promised … They crossed back to Vietnam because they could not reach a deal. They fled the place.” He said Cambodian police had detained a casino manager and were investigating the incident.

 

One 20-year-old victim said casino security guards attacked the group with batons and iron sticks as they tried to flee. “Our four months being cheated while working at a casino in Cambodia were like hell,” she told the VnExpress news site, adding that she was forced to work 14-hour days.

 

read more https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3189571/dozens-casino-workers-flee-cambodia-swimming-vietnam