How many more human traffickers may drown before Cambodian authorities do something?

[ASEAN NOW News]

With the cost of living partly to blame many Asians are prepared to go abroad to make enough to send back funds to their families.

 

Many are often encouraged by friends who are already there to give it a go.

 

Unfortunately, some of the friends are themselves desperate to leave but their bosses say you must first recruit friends before they will consider allowing them to leave.

 

Cambodia is one country that needs to do a lot more to protect workers, especially those that are shipped over by unscrupulous agents offering them work.

 

This week we reported about the tragic drowning of a Vietnamese teenager who drowned trying to escape from a casino.

 

42 Vietnamese Casino workers

 

He was part of a group of 42 and Cambodian police said an investigation was ongoing to bust potential human trafficking rings involved in the case. (see footnote)

 

Escapees from the casino said there were over 2,000 Vietnamese brought to Cambodia as illegal workers in several casinos.

 

An Giang police cooperated with counterparts of Cambodia's Kandal Province on Friday to search for all illegal workers being held at local casinos so they could return to Vietnam.

 

Cambodian police said they found 11 people being held at casinos in Chrey Thum Commune.

 

Spokesperson for the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang on Friday said Vietnam has requested Cambodia to assist in the investigation and help find missing people in the case.

 

Human Rights website is reporting many similar cases.

 

This week South Korea arrested over 600 foreigners from Asia who were in the country working without work permits.

 

Also Chinese and Cambodian employees who worked at the Diamond C Branch II casino in Preah Sihanouk province’s Commune 3 sought police intervention to help solve the case after their employer ran away without paying their wages.

 

Authorities said if all foreign and Cambodian workers had legitimate employment contracts, the ministry would solve the case for them.

 

Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) president Pav Sina said the department’s decision to put up the company’s property for sale could be a lengthy process.

 

The workers, he said, will have to wait a long time and without an income too.

 

In March 2022, a total of 103 Chinese migrant workers have been stranded in Sulawesi for more than five months.

 

According to the workers, they came to Indonesia on work visas but their Chinese employers refused to renew their visas as work had been suspended.

 

Workers' poor physical and mental health conditions have become a matter of concern.

 

Among the 103 workers, at least 90 are ordinary migrant workers, and some are directors or managers.

 

95% of them are from Linfen, Shanxi Province, who have been working in Indonesia since November 2019. 

 

Immigrants stopped by border patrols

 

Exploitative recruitment remains a risk for many migrant workers.

 

World Cup unfair exploitation

 

Ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar’s hospitality sector must use this opportunity to address abusive recruitment practices for migrant workers – who are likely to face consequences long after the World Cup has ended.

 

We can only hope that the World Cup helps the cause of unfair exploitation and that future APEC meetings in Thailand can discuss ways and means for migrants in the trouble to have the means to reach authorities for assistance.

 

Footnote: General Keo Vannthan, from the Cambodian Immigration Department spokesman, told Cambodian media on Monday that he had led a team to Golden Phoenix Entertainment Casino in Chrey Thom Commune, Koh Thom District, Kandal Province and detained the manager for questioning, Khmer Times reported.

 

The inspection resulted in the arrest of the casino manager, a Chinese national whose identity has yet to be revealed.