Labour agency investigated

Kin Ya, 27, speaks to police at a training centre run by APMN, a local labour recruitment firm, in order to secure her release yesterday. The centre was raided after her husband claimed the company was holding her against her will.

POLICE in Phnom Penh raided a labour recruitment training centre yesterday after a man complained that its director had refused to release his wife.

Chamkarmon district police officers dropped in on the training centre run by the firm APMN in the morning, said deputy district police chief Heang Tharet.

“We talked with the company staff about the complaint,” he said. “We told them that we cannot allow the woman to stay in this centre any longer because a man asked us to help his wife get out.”

The complainant, Prom Nai, said his wife, Kin Ya, had started training with the firm in July in the hope of becoming a domestic worker in
Malaysia.

But he said she wanted to quit because she was not permitted to leave the facility. The company, however, refused.

“The centre asked for US$975 from me if I wanted my wife to leave, but I don’t have that much money,” Prom Nai said.

Company officials agreed to a compromise fee of $300 following negotiations yesterday, he said.

Ben Sokpich, the chief of administration at the centre, yesterday confirmed that the company had agreed to accept a fee from the man in exchange for allowing his wife to leave.

“We asked for $975, but we accepted only $300 because we don’t want to have more problems for our centre,” she said.

Ben Sokpich rejected Prom Nai’s claims that workers were barred from leaving the training centre; they are only required to ask permission to leave, she said.

Sunday’s complaint comes as Labour Ministry officials deliberate ways of regulating the rapidly expanding labour recruitment industry, which has seen multiple new firms pop up in the last year in a bid to supply other countries with Cambodian labour.

Authorities have promised stricter rules in response to reports that women have been detained and forced to live in cramped quarters during training programmes.

Meanwhile, the father of a woman who died after falling ill at a centre run by a separate firm said yesterday that he planned to demand $20,000 in compensation, even though he had already agreed to a lesser payment of 1.2 million riels ($235).

Yun Mab died in hospital after she fell ill at a centre run by the firm VC Manpower.

Her father, Ream Vy, said that his daughter had bruises on her neck and face when she died.

However, the company said she died from a previously undiagnosed case of leukemia.

Sen Ly, VC Manpower’s director, could not be reached for comment.

An employee who answered the phone at the training centre yesterday, who declined to provide a name, said the company believed the case had been settled.

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Koh Kong villagers attempt to block road

Photo by: Photo Supplied

Villagers involved in a land dispute plead with police in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district during a protest on Friday.
VILLAGERS involved in a long-simmering land dispute in Koh Kong province say they will send a new petition to authorities, after four protesters suffered injuries this past weekend while attempting to block a national road.

Ouch Leng, a programme officer for rights group Adhoc, said villagers blocked National Road 48 in Sre Ambel district Friday as part of a demonstration aimed at drawing attention to a dispute that could see 34 families evicted.

But a motorist who was angry with the traffic jam caused by the protest clashed with villagers, resulting in injuries to four of them, Ouch Leng said.
“The car owner tried to crash into the bed that villagers used to block the road,” said Ouch Leng, who described the injuries as “not serious”.

The villagers say they could be on the verge of eviction after a company owned by Koh Kong businessman Heng Huy set today as a deadline for the clearance of roughly 100 hectares of disputed land. The Supreme Court last year ruled that the land belonged to Heng Huy and another businessman.

Pher Nherng, a representative of the villagers, called the protest a “last choice” after Heng Huy began clearing parts of the disputed farmland last week. He said villagers yesterday began preparing a complaint to send to provincial, district and commune officials urging them to stop allowing military police to support Heng Huy. Last week, military police stood by as workers hired by Heng Huy cleared parts of the farmland. Pher Nherng said villagers also want authorities to issue land titles.

Heng Huy yesterday questioned how villagers could be issued land titles.

“How can they issue another land title to villagers if the land is already owned?”

Sre Ambel district governor Tuon Seila said that he would forward the complaint to provincial officials.

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Ties Renewed, But Doubt Remains Over Border Issue

                             Pedestrians and a tricycle motorist pass the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.

With renewed diplomatic ties between Cambodia and Thailand, officials from opposite sides offered different views on whether the ongoing border issue can be resolved.
Cambodian officials say mutual renewal of ambassadors this week are not necessarily a positive step toward solving the issue bilaterally.
A Thai spokesman, however, said renewed ties would mean better communication over the border and could lead toward steps within the Thai government for more Joint Border Committee talks.
“I think with our ambassadors in place, it would facilitate more efficient and closer coordination and communication between both countries,” the spokesman, Thani Thongphakdi, told VOA Khmer Thursday.
Both sides replaced their ambassadors this week following withdrawals in late 2009, when Cambodia made Thailand's fugitive ex-premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, an economic adviser.
Cambodian officials are less optimistic that the ongoing border row, over a disputed piece of land west of Preah Vihear temple, will now be settled.
Thai parliament has yet to approve border measures already discussed between the Joint Border Committee, said Var Kimhong, a senior government adviser and head of Cambodia's border committee.
“I am not optimistic while [the report] has not been approved in nearly three years,” he said.
Officials said border demarcation can only begin after Thai parliament approves three agreements reached between the border committees since 2008.
“Even now that diplomatic relations are normalized, non negation can get started until Thai parliament approves these agreements,” Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.
Thai spokesman Thani said he hoped the parliamentary endorsement would come in the near future. In the meantime, he said, discussions are now underway between the two sides for a meeting between prime ministers Hun Sen and Abhisit Vejjajiva.

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