ABC Radio Australia
The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for a crackdown on labour trafficking and urged Cambodians to seek employment opportunities at home.
The call comes as the government itself faces scrutiny over its regulation of so-called training centres for Cambodians seeking work abroad.
Human rights groups say the centres hold poor Cambodian women against their will, while they wait to be sent overseas for domestic work.
Reporter: Alma Mistry
Speakers: Mathieu Pellerin, consultant with Cambodian human rights group Licadho; Nilim Baruah, chief technical advisor, International Labour Organisation, Bangkok
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MISTRY: The United Nations says Cambodia is a source and a destination for sex work and forced labour. It’s also a pool of cheap labour for its larger neighbours Thailand and Malaysia. In 2004, there were over 180,000 Cambodian workers registered in Thailand, according to the International Labour Organisation. In addition, the ILO estimates there were over 80,000 unregistered or illegal workers. Mathieu Pellerin from the Cambodian human rights group Licadho says the rural poor have limited options to find work in the countryside.
PELLERIN: The number of opportunities to find work in Cambodia is very low. So I don’t think we could call these people opportunists- the risks of migration to find employment to in a foreign country is very high.
MISTRY: Matthieu Pellerin says workers are often sought out by recruiters who make offers that may be attractive to poor families in the villages.
PELLERIN: Basically misrepresenting what the job will be, luring the families to accepting to give one or some of their daughters to go and work in foreign countries through these recruitment agencies. And there’s also a loan that is offered to family by company, roughly 100 dollars, so its a very simple form of debt bondage.
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