Rescues of trafficked migrant workers surge

More than 500 trafficked Cambodian migrant workers were rescued abroad and sent home in 2015, a huge increase compared to 2014 numbers, though largely attributable to a handful of mass repatriations from Indonesia. According to a report by the Foreign Ministry, 573 workers were returned home in 2015, a 327 per cent increase from 134 in 2014.

The jump was primarily due to the repatriation of 427 fishermen from Indonesia in the wake of an Associated Press investigation into slave-like conditions aboard fishing boats working in that country’s waters. Just 23 Cambodians were returned from Indonesia in 2014. Meanwhile, some 82 were rescued from China in 2015, compared with 59 the year before, while 55 were rescued from Malaysia in 2015, compared to 34 in 2014.

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