Families allege child exploitation

Several boys and girls aged between 7 and 15 were allegedly physically abused for years and forced to sell food on the streets of Phnom Penh at night to pay off their parents’ debt, family and the rights group Adhoc said yesterday.

Two families filed separated complaints through Adhoc over the last few weeks for intervention. A member of one of the families, Chhieng Taing Y, 27, said her mother borrowed $100 from a woman, Sim Neng, in Kampong Chhnang town about four years ago. Unable to pay her debt, the mother sent Taing Y’s half-sister, 11, and half-brother, 7, to work for Neng.

Her siblings were deprived of schooling, food and rest, and eight months ago, she continued, both children were sent to the capital to work selling fruits on trays at restaurants in nine- to 10-hour night shifts for Neng’s sons, Maing and Vith.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/families-allege-child-exploitation