Junta to target Cambodian beggars + More ‘undesirables’ in city’s sights (#beggars in PP)

[geovalin]

Laignee Barron

As Cambodian migrant workers continue spilling back into the country from Thailand, the junta announced yesterday that it will clear out its homeless and destitute in attempts to “address” the ongoing problem of mainly Cambodian beggars roaming the streets.

In the announcement, Yanee Lertkrai, director-general of the Department of Social Development and Welfare, said the effort was part of Thailand’s continued endeavour to regulate its workforce and clamp down on rampant human trafficking.

Yanee claimed that more than 90 per cent of the child beggars in Thailand are Cambodian, and that the military government has made an agreement with Cambodia to deport them.

But government spokesman Phay Siphan and officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday said they had not heard of such an arrangement and have concerns about the policy’s repercussions.

“These people are used to making a living in Thailand, so of course if they return, it will affect Cambodia, as now they’ll need to find income here,” Siphan said.

The junta’s statement follows a long history of forcible repatriations of Cambodian beggars, including a 2003 order to round them up and use air force planes to fly them as far as possible from the border. But the practice has never worked.

“Using street sweeps and deportations against beggars has been like throwing a boomerang … the Cambodian beggars just come right back to Bangkok within a week or so of being sent out,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.

For beggars faced with a choice of extreme poverty or being smuggled into Thailand with the assistance of human traffickers, “the considerable income to be made from begging for them outweighs the risks,” Friends International warned.

If Thailand wants to get serious about modifying its ranking this year as one of the worst countries for human trafficking, other rights groups added, it’s going to have to abandon the unsuccessful repatriations, which criminalise the impoverished beggars and side-step the smuggling networks.

“t’s a lot more about politics than actual reform,” said Ou Virak, Cambodian Center for Human Rights chairman.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/junta-target-cambodian-beggars

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More ‘undesirables’ in city’s sights

Tue, 1 July 2014

Sen David and Alice Cuddy

City Hall is preparing to launch a fresh round of street sweeps, hailing its recent controversial efforts to clear Phnom Penh of beggars, street sellers and homeless adults and children a success.

City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said the first round of the municipality’s campaign to clear the city was over, with authorities looking to target a new batch of “undesirables”.

“We are not sure what date but, from July, City Hall will start the second campaign,” he said, adding that everyone rounded up earlier this month was benefiting from the initiative.

During the first round of sweeps, the Post found that children as young as 7 years old were being hauled into caged vans and taken to the city’s notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre.

Several witnesses said that rather than receiving training, those locked in Prey Speu spent much of the two to three days they stayed there cleaning and collecting rubbish.

Two days after the first sweep, United Nations representatives visited the centre and described conditions inside as “extremely poor”.

Authorities denied that Prey Speu was used and said those rounded up were put into the care of Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE).

However, PSE said it was providing help to just 13 children.

Last week, in a further bid to clear the streets, City Hall named six intersections across the capital that would be used as “model areas” in which beggars and street sellers would no longer be allowed.

Dimanche told the Post yesterday that such efforts were needed to ensure the safety of people on the streets, to offer them a more prosperous future, to combat human trafficking, and to make the city more attractive.

He named PSE, Mith Samlanh, New Family and Enfants d’Asie Aspeca – all of which focus on disadvantaged children – as NGOs joining in for the latest roundup.

Ouk Sovan, deputy program director at PSE, confirmed that the partnership was expected to continue.

“We are working with City Hall in order to respect the rights of children,” he said, adding that his organisation could only help those in its care and could not ensure that no one rounded up would be sent to Prey Speu.

Son Sophal, director of the Social Affairs Department, said the “roundup [of] the homeless and beggars [was] for their benefit and the city’s”.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/more-%E2%80%98undesirables%E2%80%99-city%E2%80%99s-sights