Family Accepts $9000 over Collapse Death
May 24th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
The family of a worker who was killed when a ceiling collapsed at Kompong Spue province footwear factory lasts week has accepted 9,000 in compensation, and in return has agreed not file a complaint against the company, the deceased’s wife said yesterday. …
Rim Sarouen, 22, was one of two workers who were crushed to death in the ceiling collapse at the Taiwanese-owned Wing Star Shoes Co Ltd., on May 16. Authorities said the collapse was due to construction work that had been illegally contracted. …
Korn Vet, the father of the second victim, Sim Srey Touch, 22, said …“We would demand more than $20,000. If they pay us, we won’t file a complaint against them. …
Dave Welsh, country head of the Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based organisation advocating for worker rights, said a proper of compensation should be based on the workers’ salary, years of service lost and damages-which would bring it to 97,000. …
“Paying off a poor grief-stricken family with $9,000 sets a terrible precedent, not just in the garment industry, but for any worker in the industry,” he [Dave Welsh] said.
Mr. Wesh said the government should prosecute Wing Star.
Chhorn Chansey, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Subedi Protest Linked to CPP-Aligned Youth Group
May 24th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, International Relations, Social Concerns
Despite the apparent spontaneity of a protest against U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi at a university in Phnom Penh on Tuesday night, it emerged Wednesday that one of the apparent leaders of the demonstration is associated with a youth organization aligned with the ruling CPP.
After Mr. Subedi ended his lecture on international investment law to hundreds of students at the Cambodia Mekong University (CMU) on Tuesday night, a question and answer session was hijacked by students wanting to vent their anger about the special rapporteur and his reports on human rights in Cambodia.
The first student to take the microphone was 23-year-old Chea Chheng, a student of public administration at the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), who said he rejected the reports released by Mr. Subedi and stated firmly that “Cambodia has no human rights problems.” …
Mr. Chheng’s Facebook page shows a picture of him dressed in a military uniform issued to student volunteers as he receives a gift from Prime Minister Hun Sen at an event to promote the prime minister’s nationwide land-titling program. Other photos show Mr. Chheng posing on three different occasions alongside Mr. Many, including at events involving the Red Cross and the UYFC.
Kuch Naren and Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/subedi-protest-linked-to-cpp-aligned-youth-group-26156/
Subedi Urges Passage of Laws on Judiciary
May 24th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, International Relations, Social Concerns
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi met with a senior official at the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday and reiterated a call for new legislation to be passed on governing Cambodia’s judiciary.
“He did not ask us much on anything new, but he did ask for an update on the work to the Law on the Organisation and Functioning of the Courts and the Law on the Status of Judges and Prosecutors,” [Ministry of Justice Secretary of State] Mr. [Prom] Sidhra said. …
The laws have been a long time coming. Their very existence is enshrined in the country’s 1993 constitution, both are still in the draft sage and have bounced back and forth between the Ministry of Justice and the Council of Ministers. …
Phorn Bopa and Lauren Crothers
www.cambodiadaily.com
Judge Denies Coercion Claim in Land Dispute Assault Case
May 24th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Disputed Land, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
A father whose three children were badly beaten by employees of a rubber plantation has accused a Ratanakkiri Provincial Court judge of threatening to send two sons, aged 14 and 21, to jail unless they accept $1,000 in compensation and drop the assault complaint.
Ry Saron is attempting to sue the plantation owner DM Group, for $40,000 for the May 5 beating that company employees inflicted with wood and metal poles on his three children and a neighbor.
The four were attempting to stop rubber plantation workers from clearing the land claimed by their families when they were beaten. …
Mr. Saron also alleged that Judge [Eng] Champnap threatened to charge his sons and his neighbor’s son with attacking the plantation workers, thus turning them into the perpetrators and not the victims of the assault. …
Under duress, Mr Saron said he agreed to thumbprint a statement, two lines of which he kept blank at the bottom, which Judge Champnap subsequently filled in himself stating that Mr. Saron had agreed to accept the $1,000.
“The judge said, “your sons will not be charged and the four workers will be also released,” he said. …
DM Group has been locked in land disputes for years.
Last year, Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Second Lieutenant Sin Vanny, 50, was arrested for shooting and injuring a 20-year old villager who was riding a motor cycle across land at the center of a separate long running land dispute between ethnic minority villagers and the rubber plantation. Lt. Vanny was moonlighting at the time as a security guard for DM Group in Lumphat district. …
Aun Pheap,
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/judge-denies-coercion-claim-in-assault-case-26546/
5,000 Protest for Benefits in Kompong Speu
May 24th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
About 5,000 garment workers from a factory in Kompong Speu province, which manufactures clothing for U.S sports giant Nike, yesterday blocked National Road 4 demanding additional allowances, such as transport and maternity bonuses, a union representative said.
The protest at Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment MFG Corp., in Samroing Tong district, has been going since Tuesday, said Sun Vanny, a Free Trade Union representative at the factory. …
Sabrina has previously come under media scrutiny for repeated incidents of mass fainting. In 2012, the Free Trade Union recorded that Sabrina had four separate incidents of faintings, affecting 340 workers. …
Saing Soethrith, P.21
www.cambodiadaily.com
Massive Power Outage Triggered by Falling Tree
May 24th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Social Concerns, Tourism, Trade, Water
A massive power outage that left large areas of Phnom Penh without electricity and water and plunged southern Vietnam into darkness on Wednesday was caused by a crane operator knocking a tree onto a high voltage power line, Vietnam’s state-owned energy provider said yesterday. …
“A crane with the registration number 61P-3745 broke safety regulations, which led to widespread outages in the Southern region of Vietnam,” the Southern Power Corporation, which is owned by Vietnam Electricity Group, said in a statement. …
The state-owned newspaper, Than Nien, reported that the incident had cost the Southern Power Corporation and estimated $7000, 000 in lost revenue. …
An official at Cambodia’s state-owned energy provider Eletricite du Cambodge…said that no one yet had estimated how much the incident had cost the firm. …
However he did say the outage had meant Cambodia’s national grid had lost 40 percent of its capacity during the hours without electricity. …
The blackout hit the tourist thronged river front area and left scores of hotels restaurants and offices throughout the city in darkness. …
Simon Henderson and Kaing Menghun
www.cambodiadaily.com
Eviction Protestors Block Phnom Penh International Airport
May 23rd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disputed Land, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Tourism
About 20 people protesting their pending eviction from their homes near Phnom Penh International Airport blocked people from leaving or entering the airport for about half an hour yesterday, before a large force of police broke up their protest. …
In July, authorities told 182 families that their homes were in the way of a security “buffer zone” around the airport, and that they needed to clear out ahead of the arrival of the world leaders for two summits late last year. …
The residents insist they own their land legally, as local government officials had recognized their property transactions and house constructions over many years. But the municipal government has rejected those claims, saying they built their homes illegally regardless of what commune and district officials acknowledged in terms of their land purchase and construction. …
If the houses are not removed, the International Civil Aviation Organisation could blacklist Phnom Penh International Airport, he [Civil Aviation State Secretariat Say Sokhan] claimed.
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eviction-protesters-block-phnom-penh-international-airport-26147/
Hun Sen Tells Landowners in Kep to Obey Tax Law
May 23rd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday told landowners in the coastal province of Kep to pay their taxes on unused land and increase the amount of investment in the area to attract more visitors.
According to the law, unused land is subject to a 2 percent tax that must be paid by the registered owner before September 30 of the relevant year. …
Mr. Hun sen also called on investors to boost the number of tourism projects in the small coastal province. …
Neou Vannarin
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/hun-sen-tells-landowners-in-kep-to-obey-tax-law-26172/
Rain Provides Small Respite for Families in Koh Kong Drought
May 23rd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Climate Change, Construction, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, Infrastructure, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns, Water
Several days of rain have finally brought relief to hundreds of families in Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City who had been without water for two weeks because the reservoir that provides their supply dried up during hot season. …
LYP Group, a company owned by Ly Yong Yong Phat, channels water to 4,000 families in Khemara Phoumint City from the Cham Yeam reservoir in Mondol Seima district and [provincial director of the Department of Industry Mines and Energy] Mr. [Pitch] Si Yun said that about 20 percent of those families had been affected since early May by water shortages.
Mr. Si Yun said that both his department and LYP group had studied ways to solve the area’s water-shortage problem and had already identified a new reservoir site at Ta Phorn waterfall located nearby that could store between 5,000 and 7,000 cubic meters of water. …
Mr. Si Yun said construction was scheduled to begin later this year and would take around two years to complete. …
Chhorn Chansy, P.17
www.cambodiadaily.com
Vietnam Power Failure Hits Phnom Penh
May 23rd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Electricity, Energy, Imports, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Social Concerns, Tourism, Water
A massive power outage Wednesday in Southern Vietnam brought rolling blackouts that lasted for hours to Ho Chi Minh City, the entire southeastern region of Vietnam and large sections of Phnom Penh.
Vietnam’s state-owned Southern Power Corporation said Wednesday that the problem occurred around 2 p.m. following the breakdown of a 500-kilovolt transmission line that also supplies Cambodia with much-needed electricity. …
“We have only about 30 percent of our normal supply of electricity to distribute to important areas of the city, but we are trying to fix the problem,” the [Eletricite du Cambodge] official said yesterday afternoon, adding that Vietnam provides Cambodia with about 40 percent of its national electricity supply.
Keo Sovannarith, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, confirmed the city’s water supply had been hit by the outage.
“When the water supply factory looses electricity from the EdC, the machine-which uses electricity to work-can’t pump water to the pipes,” he said. …
Chin Chan and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vietnam-power-failure-hits-phnom-penh-26121/
CNRP Lawmaker Visits Controversial Plantation
May 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Environment & Natural Resources, Forests, Industry, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay said yesterday that he would ask the government to cancel the land concession of a Vietnamese rubber firm in Ratanakkiri province he accused of logging and exporting wood illegally.
Mr. Chay, a candidate in July’s national election for the Cambodia National Rescue Party, wrapped up a three-day visit to Company 72’s rubber plantation in O’Yadaw district yesterday, during which he said he saw the firm’s employees logging inside thick, healthy forest. The country’s forest laws only allow concessionaires to fell forests inside their boundaries if degraded. …
Human rights groups and local communities have long accused rubber firms operating in Ratanakkiri of illegally encroaching on ethnic minority land and clearing community forests vital to the province’s minority groups. …
Aun Pheap, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Students Protest At UN Envoy’s University Lecture
May 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Economics, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi on Tuesday received a thorny reception from hundreds of students at a Phnom Penh university, who angrily questioned his impartiality and unfurled banners calling for him to end his work in Cambodia.
Special rapporteur Subedi delivered a lecture to about 1,000 students packed into a room at the Cambodian Mekong University (CMU) on the theme of “The challenge of reconciling competing interests in the law of foreign investment.” …
As the floor was opened up for questions from students, 23-year-old Chea Chheng, a student of public administration at the Royal University of Law and Economics, took the microphone.
“You say Cambodia is the hell of human rights. Your report contains 180 pages describing all bad things about Cambodia. Why?” asked Mr. Chheng, referring to a report on Cambodia by Mr. Subedi in July, which was met with an angry response from the government at the time. …
Five other students from CMU and other universities around Phnom Penh then took the microphone to set about dishing out similar critiques of Mr. Subedi’s reports, which have covered matters such as land rights, independence of the judiciary and electoral reform, to yet more enthusiastic applause from the assembled young people. …
The event finished with the university’s chancellor, Ich Seng, saying that it was “important to have a human rights forum.”
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/students-protest-at-un-envoys-university-lecture-25855/
At 10th Anniversary, Arbitration Council Faces Funding Shortage
May 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns, Technical Assistance
The Arbitration Council, an independent body that resolves labor disputes in Cambodia’s garment sector, celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday, though officials expressed concern that funding for the body was due to run out in March next year.
Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor, said the Arbitration Council currently receives all its funding from the World Bank’s good governance project and that more funds are needed to ensure the body–which has resolved nearly 1,500 industrial disputes, survives. …
Speaking after the conference, Mr. Mean said it was not the responsibility of the government to fund the body but that of the Arbitration Council itself. …
In the 10 years since funding for the International Labor Organization helped establish the Arbitration Council, it has resolved nearly 1,500 industrial disputes involving more than 600,00 workers. It also claims an 80 percent success rate in preventing strikes during negotiations.
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/at-10th-anniversary-arbitration-council-faces-funding-shortage-25887/
Factory Dining Hall Collapses in Phnom Penh; 23 injured
May 21st, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
The dining hall of a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that supplies clothes to U.S. brand Gap collapsed into a pond Monday, injuring more than 20 workers who were eating lunch, workers and officials said.
The hall, which is part of Top World Garment (Cambodia) Ltd. in Kbal Koh commune but outside the main building, collapsed at 11:40 a.m., according to commune police chief Mao Rith. …
The accident comes only five days after another factory in Kompong Speu province experienced a ceiling collapse that left two workers dead. Government and factory officials yesterday said the Taiwanese-owned Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. was safe enough for staff to go back to work.
“Tomorrow, the workers will return to work so that the production chain will not be affected,” said Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor. …
Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) election candidate Mu Sochua… said the CNRP is demanding a transparent inspection of Wing Star Shoes, as well as all the other factories in the country.
She also called for the prosecution of all the individuals who were involved in the oversight of the building’s illegal construction. …
Chin Chan and Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-dining-hall-collapses-in-phnom%E2%80%88penh-23-injured-25558/
Cambodians Abroad Sent Home $256M Last Year
May 21st, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Financial Services, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Production
Cambodian migrant workers sent home $256 million last year, according to a report from a U.N. agency and the World Bank, which was released in Bangkok yesterday.
The report from the bank and Rome-based International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), titled Sending Money Home to Asia, found that migrants from Asia sent a total of $260 billion in international remittances in 2012. …
“[B]ut high [bank] fees and limited financial services outside of urban areas are reducing the benefits of those remittances for millions of rural residents,” says a joint statement accompanying the report.
The report does not specifically outline how serious these problems are in Cambodia, which received $256 million, or 1.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), in remittances last year. Workers sending money home are charged on average 5.59 percent on remittances to Cambodia, the report says. ….
But the report notes Cambodia’s high saturation of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the provinces means that rural access to remittances is likely better than elsewhere.
MFI’s account for 26 percent of transfers to Cambodia, but the costs for these transfers average 10 percent of the amount being sent, the report says. …
Moeun Tola, head of the labor program at the Community Legal Education Center, said many migrant workers, especially those working in Thailand send money back through informal channels, which would not be included in the report. …
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cambodians-abroad-sent-home-256m-last-year-25574/
Troubled Village Embroiled In New Land Disputes
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Farming, Forests, Industry, Land Tenure, Protected Areas, Social Concerns, Social Land Concessions
A year after a massive military raid here that left a 14-year old girl dead and hundreds of families evicted, there remains little sign of the original land dispute that turned this rural village into a hotbed of agitation.
But a new firm and a government-issued social land concession for other evictees in the province are creating new problems in the area.
Four months before the military raided Broma on May 16, 2012, hundreds of families had been protesting against a local rubber plantation owned by the private firm Casotim for allegedly encroaching on their farms. …
But old land disputes are giving way to new ones here, thanks to yet another agri-business firm’s plans in the area and the government’s own designs to turn nearly 19,000 hectares on the edge of the village into a social land concession for families across the province either without land or displaced by land disputes. …
[Technical officer for the provincial government’s department of land management] Mr. [Chan] Kong said the government had plans to clear 18,838 hectares of land and would eventually move 3,000 families who had been displaced by other land disputes across the province.
He rejected the families’ claims that the concession would take over any long-standing farms and said those claiming otherwise were opportunists hoping to stake out land they had never farmed. …
Contacted by phone, village chief Chea Chin said there was also more than farmland at stake. He said that hundreds of ethnic Cham families the government has sent to the village to move onto a new social land concession have already started clearing a 580-hectare government approved community forest the entire village and its 600 families rely on. …
The village chief said another 74 local families were also accusing a new rubber plantation in the area of encroaching on their farms. …
Mr. Kong…. confirmed that there was a 5,000-hectare concession in the area. …
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/troubled-village-embroiled-in-new-land-disputes-25184/
Protestors Block National Road Over Energy Prices
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Electricity, Energy, Infrastructure, Social Concerns
About 300 people on Saturday blocked off a stretch of National Road 5 in Banteay Meanchey province protesting what they call is an unfair increase in electricity prices. …
Protesters believe that the private electricity supplier, Sok Vitith, altered the Commune’s electricity converter without telling the consumers so that it now produces 160 kilovolt-amps (KVA) instead of the usual 100 KVA.
“I reject the claim I did it for my own benefit. I had to do it because there was not enough electricity to supply the commune, so in April, I changed the electricity cabinet from 100 KVA to 160 KVA,” he [Sok Vitith] said.
Blaming the villager’s soaring usage on the increased use of appliances during recent hot weather, Mr. Vitith said that he had accepted villagers complaints and had yesterday reinstalled the 100 KVA converter. …
Khuon Narim, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Factory Orders Staff Back to Work Amid Safety Concerns
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
Employees at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in Kompong Speu province where two workers were killed when one of the building’s floors collapsed on Thursday have been ordered back to work today, despite ongoing concerns from labor activists about the building’s safety.
While conceding that some parts of the building—including the section that collapsed—had been built without a permit and were potentially unstable, an official for the provincial department of land management said Sunday that workers could safely return to work as “warning signs” would be erected to avert employees from parts of the factory still deemed unsafe.
“There are two illegal extensions to the building, which have to be removed,” said Mam Narey, bureau chief of the provincial construction department. “We cannot keep them because it is very dangerous for the workers.” …
The mezzanine level of the Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. in Kong Pisei district collapsed on Thursday morning, crushing workers who were arriving at the factory. According to the authorities, steel beams holding up the concrete flooring buckled under the weight of boxes of shoes due to shoddy construction done without a permit. …
“Safe and ethical working conditions are of paramount importance to ASICS. We have launched our own investigation into the cause of the incident in full cooperation with the relevant authorities. In addition to our ASICS staff already on site, two representatives plus related people from ASICS corporation headquarters will travel to Phnom Penh and personally evaluate progress of investigations,” said Katsumi Funakoshi, general manager of public relations department for ASICS.
“The decision to re-open or continue to work with this factory would be considered after the result of investigation by ourselves, by the third party and by the government,” he added. …
“Just like in a house, when you build a small roof for the dog, and if that small roof collapses, you will not suggest that the whole house is going to collapse,” [ Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia chairman] Mr. [Van] Sou Leng said. …
He also said that the paying of money to families of the dead and injured over the weekend was “insulting.”
“There’s the criminal aspect of an illegal construction that resulted in the death of workers,” Mr. Welsh said. “To think that they are offering money to families over the weekend to prevent the criminal suit is ludicrous and frankly should not stand.”
According to Ms. Hour, the factory representative, nine of the injured workers who went to Calmette Hospital had received $1,700 each. Victims with minor injuries at the district referral hospital received $550 each, she said.
“For each dead victim, the factory donated $6,500 to each family to hold the funeral,” Ms. Hour said. “We wanted to negotiate compensation with them but right now, they don’t want to talk. They need time.” …
Chhorn Chansy and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-orders-staff-back-to-work-amid-safety-concerns-25192/
EU Won’t Investigate Land Concessions—for Now
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Economics, Exports, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Trade
The trade commissioner and foreign affairs representative of the European Union (E.U.) have turned down a request from 13 members of the European Parliament that they immediately investigate Cambodia’s much criticized economic land concessions, but said they were monitoring the issue closely.
In a March letter to Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht and the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, the lawmakers asked for an immediate investigation into the concessions, which they accuse of a raft of human rights abuses. They also asked that if the investigation corroborated their claims that the E.U. suspend the duty free access Cambodian exports currently enjoy to Europe under the Everything But Arms trade scheme—part of the E.U.’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
Their request followed a resolution to the same effect passed by the entire European Parliament in October. …
The commission currently requires that human rights violations be “serious and systematic” before it launches an investigation that could strip a country of GSP benefits. In a report on Cambodia’s land concessions last year, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights to the country, Surya Subedi, said that rights violations tied to the concessions were “serious and widespread.” …
While garments make up most of the trade, the E.U. has come under particular fire for giving duty free access to Cambodian sugar due to the rights abuses alleged at a pair of Koh Kong province plantations growing the commodity. Hundreds of local families accuse the plantations of stealing their farms, sometimes violently, and offering them little to no compensation. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-wont-investigate-land-concessions-for-now-25194/
Malaysian couple jailed for starving maid to death
May 17th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
A Malaysian Court yesterday sentenced a couple to 24 years in jail for culpable homicide after their Cambodian maid starved to death while working for them in their home on the northwest coast of Penag, Agence France Press (AFP) reported. …
Cambodian opposition lawmaker and former Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua yesterday welcomed the sentence, saying it was a positive sign as it marked the first time the Malaysian authorities had put anyone on trail following the abuse or death of a Cambodian domestic worker in that country. …
In October 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen banned the sending of Cambodian domestic workers to Malaysia after mounting reports of abuse and generally harsh and inhumane working conditions. …
Since the moratorium on sending workers to Malaysia, both countries said they would work on an agreement to protect Cambodian workers in Malaysia.
An initial draft by Malaysia was much-criticized for not including, for example, rules on minimum wage. …
Denise Hruby, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com