Problems Beset Cambodia’s Anti-Trafficking Campaign

via Khmer NZ News Media

By Irwin Loy

PHNOM PEN, June 22, 2010 (IPS) - Worrying trends continue to plague Cambodia and provide considerable concern for the future despite the gains it has reportedly made in combating human trafficking.

Citing renewed attention to law enforcement and the prosecution of offenders engaged in "modern slavery," the 2010 Trafficking in Persons report released earlier this month by the U.S. State Department removed Cambodia from its watch list of countries seen as not doing enough to fight human trafficking.

"The government of Cambodia demonstrated significant progress in law enforcement efforts against sex trafficking during the last year," the report states.

Cambodia was judged to be a Tier 2 country on a three-level scale, indicating that while it does not comply with "minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking," it is nonetheless "making significant efforts to do so."

The report cites increased convictions of people accused of human trafficking as justification for removing Cambodia from the watch list. There were 36 convictions of offenders during the reporting period, compared with 11 in 2008.

Bith Kimhong, director of the anti-human trafficking department in Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, called the decision to remove the country from the U.S. watch list "just."

"We have worked hard to combat human trafficking," he said.

Samleang Seila, country director for the group Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), which helps child victims of sex abuse, acknowledged that authorities have demonstrated increased commitment to tackling the problem.

"Cambodia is making progress against trafficking," he said. "The number of arrests and investigations done by the police last year has increased. There are more sex offenders sent to court."

Yet, he added, it remains difficult to prosecute offenders accused of abusing the children his organisation helps.

Impunity and corruption – sometimes from police and judicial officials alleged to be both "directly and indirectly involved in trafficking" – continue to impede progress, states the U.S. report.

Children, women and men still fall victim to trafficking within the country and outside of Cambodia’s borders.

And a "weak judicial system," combined with "credible fears of retaliation," means that many victims are unwilling to rely on the legal system for help, the report adds.

These and related warnings have left critics wondering why the U.S. State Department saw fit to lift Cambodia from its human trafficking watch list.

U.S. Congressman Ed Royce, a frequent critic of government corruption in Cambodia, said the country’s removal from the watch list was an unjustified reward.

"For Cambodia to make meaningful progress in addressing human trafficking, it must address the growing problem of government corruption," Royce said in response to e-mailed questions. "The problem is getting worse by the year."

Royce, who is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sponsored a House Resolution last year condemning Cambodian corruption and "the role it plays in furthering human trafficking."

"Having heard scores of accounts from NGOs (non-government organisations) and from eyewitnesses, the Cambodian government’s corruption often hampers trafficking investigations, and at worse, covers up the problem. Rewarding Cambodia, as the State Department Report does, only hampers efforts to curtail human trafficking," said Royce in a statement.

Global Witness, an international anti-corruption watchdog, has accused Cambodia of "widespread corruption and mismanagement of public funds" even as it urged the international donor community to demand that the government fulfill its promised reforms, including those in the judicial system.

"What needs to be improved is the judicial system and the court process, which sometimes discourages victims from participating in the legal system against the defender," APLE’s Seila said.

There is also a fear that economic problems could magnify human trafficking concerns in the near future, with migrant workers looking abroad for job opportunities.

Neighbouring Thailand remains a major destination country for Cambodian migrants, with some 124,000 migrants legally registered to work there. However, it is estimated that many more undocumented labourers head abroad each year.

Fueled by a lack of opportunity at home, trafficked migrant workers are often lured by middlemen who promise lucrative jobs abroad. Instead, they are often smuggled to perform dangerous work on fishing vessels.

"Most of them work under slave labour conditions for a very long time," said Manfred Hornung, a legal adviser with the Cambodian rights group LICADHO.

The escaped migrants he has interviewed report brutal conditions – 22-hour work days, frequent beatings, even murder at sea.

Migrants are rarely paid until after they are released, he said, a timeline that can last for months and even years.

"In May, I had two guys come back after being away for three years," Hornung said. "None of them received salaries."

Hornung calls dozens of smuggled migrants he has interviewed "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to human trafficking concerns.

Estimates suggest that between 250,000 and 300,000 young Cambodians will enter the labour market each year in search of jobs. If they cannot find them in Cambodia, many will choose to look abroad, potentially putting them at risk.

The U.S. State Department has also warned of this alarming trend.

"Labour trafficking among Cambodians migrating abroad for work is a growing problem that will require greater attention from authorities in the coming year," it says.