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| Cambodian worker return from Malaysia. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post |
Tuesday, 04 September 2012
Sen David
The Phnom Penh Post
The recruitment firm HRD Company had allegedly threatened the mother of two sisters working as maids in Malaysia, pressuring her to withdraw her NGO complaint seeking help in repatriating her daughters or risk having all communication with them cut, a rights group said yesterday.
Pov Chhan, 50, from Kampong
Cham’s Kampong Siem district, filed a complaint with the Community Legal
Education Center on Saturday after the second anniversary of the
expiration of her daughters’ contracts, saying she had not heard from
them, nor had they returned home.
“[On Sunday], the company called me by phone. They said: ‘You are so poor, if you file a complaint, you will not get any money from us’,” Chhan said yesterday.
“But I really do not want money;
I just want my two daughters back home safely. I did not get their
salary ever, not even 100 riel.”
Chhan said she had heard from
her daughters only twice since they left at the beginning of 2010, and
both times the sisters had been distressed.
“They called one time seeking
help. One said she had been beaten and the other one was ordered to work
as a maid for many houses,” she said.
“They said they wanted to come back home, but they were not allowed.”
Moeun Tola, head of the labour
program at the Community Legal Education Center, said the NGO was
investigating Chhan’s complaint and the allegation that HRD Company had
threatened her to drop the complaint.
When contacted yesterday, an HRD
Company representative, who declined to be named, would not comment on
the allegation, but said he would pass on the information to his
superiors.
Phnom Penh will host a regional conference today on migrant labour standards and human rights.
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