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The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 569

“Phnom Penh: Civil society organizations and officials of the government have expressed different opinions regarding the right to get jobs in Cambodia in the first three months of 2008.

“An under-secretary of state of the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training, Mr. Um Mean, said that those who say that nowadays there are no jobs for its citizens in Cambodia, they are not blind, but they pretend to be blind and deaf, because now there are markedly more factories, and Cambodia has a broad range of industries, of tourism, and of transportation and communication jobs; those enterprises even lack workers.

“Though trade unions and garment factories’ representatives had agreed to increase the basic salary up to US$50 per month on 19 October 2006, this increase cannot match with the inflation in the markets.

“According to a 2007 report of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association [ADHOC], about 300,000 persons join the labor force every year, but only 16,000 among them are graduated students who are seeking jobs. However, only 10% of these graduates can get adequate jobs.

“The new laborers who join the labor force face difficulties to get jobs in the areas where they live, forcing 250,000 of them to migrate from rural areas to major cities, especially to Phnom Penh; a large number of them cross the borders illegally to neighboring countries to seek jobs. The garment sector in Cambodia absorbs about 300,000 workers, but it cannot employ all migrant workers.

“[The president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association] Mr. Rong Chhun said that most investors coming to invest in Cambodia have their own skilled workers and senior managers; their Cambodian staff can only work, for example, as unskilled construction workers. Mr. Rong Chhun added that at the present time, the majority of Cambodian citizens has no paid employment, and this strongly affects their livelihood because of inflation, which makes the prices of all kinds of good skyrocket; this forces parents to stop sending their children to school, so that they rather help to seek additional income to cover daily expenses, and among them are many who work as scavengers at garbage dumps, though they are children.

“According to the survey by ADHOC, the shortage of employment for youth seriously affects children working at certain production areas that are not well organized, like rubber plantations, salt field, brick and tile kilns, and in general in Poipet. Most of the children working there are from 10 to 17 years old, and they do all kinds of work that normally adults do, such as rubber tapping, carrying heavy goods on racks on their shoulders, dragging carts, or carrying salt yokes.

“This ADHOC report added that part of this working situation exists because it does not seem to get proper attention, and nobody respects the rights of the working children, for example, in the work at some mines in Mondolkiri. There is no respect of workers’ rights, the workers get hit as punishment; moreover, those companies do not allow human rights organizations to gather information or to observe all kinds of abuse of workers’ rights. Furthermore, some mines broke in and workers were killed. Those companies can do so, because the government does not observe and check whether all contracts between the companies and the government are implemented, and the government is also not caring to monitor the abuses of workers’ rights.

“Mr. Rong Chhun said that at the present in Cambodia, Khmer citizens are facing many difficulties when seeking jobs. He said that if Cambodia had a lot of employment opportunities, Khmer citizens would not migrate to work in other countries; the majority of migration leads to Thailand and to Malaysia, and a smaller number people goes to work in South Korea. Among those who go abroad, some do it legally and some are illegal workers; they are mistreated, oppressed, and threatened, both mentally and physically, by people from those countries who accuse them of coming into their countries illegally; they may be detained, until there are interventions on their behalf to help them return to their home countries.” Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #51, 17.7.2008

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Thursday, 17 July 2008

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.7, #1695, 17.7.2008

• Cambodia and Thailand Plan to Negotiate at High Level to Lessen the Tense Situation along the Border; 250 Black-Clad Thai Border Protection Unit Troops Have Not Withdrawn from Tuol Prasat Pagoda in Khmer Territory
  Thai Soldiers Came to Check Border Markers at the Site of a Bridge on Khmer Territory at the Poipet International Border Crossing [16 July 2008]
• Radio and Television Channels Are Accused of Disregarding the Instructions of the National Election Committee [about sale, rent, or provision of air time to political parties, and to disregard broadcasting policies – those channels are: Bayon Television, Apsara Television, Phnom Penh Municipal Television, Cambodian Television Network CTN, Radio FM 88 MHz, Radio FM 90 MHz, Radio FM 95 MHz, Radio FM 97 MHz, Radio FM 98 MHz, Radio FM 99 MHz, Radio FM 103 MHz, Radio Free Asia, and Voice of America [most of them, except for the last two, are Cambodian People’s Party oriented]
• Cambodian Mine Action Center [CMAC] Has Cleared 15 Million Square Meter of Landmines in the Period of Six Month in 2008 [according to General Director of CMAC Mr. Khem Sophoan]
• Man, 42, Raped Six-Year-Old Girl, Killed Her, Gouged Her Eyes, and Threw Her into a Pond [Thma Puok, Banteay Meanchey]

Khmer Sthapana, Vol.1, #51, 17.7.2008

• Officials of the Government and Civil Society Organizations Are Concerned about Employment and Work in Cambodia
• Civil Society Organizations Raised Human Trafficking as an Issue for Political Parties to Find Solutions
• Meat of Wild Animals Is Famous in Restaurants [Siem Reap]

Koh Santepheap, Vol.41, #6399, 17.7.2008

• Another New Bank from Korea Inaugurated [‘Best Specialized Bank’]

Moneaksekar Khmer, Vol.15, #3514, 16.7.2008

• Information about the Release of Tim Sakhan Is Kept Secret [he had been defrocked on an accusation of having perpetrated an offense against the Buddhist law, he was accused to have destroyed the harmony between Vietnam and Cambodia and arrested – but later released: no information about where he is]

Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4643, 17.7.2008

• Royal Academy of Cambodia Publishes Homonyms [a word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word but has a different meaning] and Paronyms [a word derived from the same root, or with the same sound, as another word] Dictionary
• Opposition Party President of Malaysia [Anwar Ibrahim] Arrested [on 16 July 2008 on the Accusation of having sex with his male assistant – he denies it and calls it a fabrication to exclude him from politics]
• Thai Supreme Commander General Boonsang Niempradit Told the Military to Maintain a Neutral Position in Politics [after the Chief of the Air Force, Air Chief Marshal General Chalit Phukpasuk, had twice participated in events of the opposition movement of the People’s Alliance for Democracy in his military uniform]

Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, Vol.15, #3361, 17.7.2008

• The US Federal Bureau of Investigation [Phnom Penh office] and US Embassy Want to Help to Arrest the Real Murderers Who Killed the Journalist [Mr. Khim Sambo and his son, aged 21], but the Government Does Not Need Them [the government is reported to have responded that it will ask for help when it needs it]
• Officials of the Ministry of Water Resources Accuse One of [Minister of Economy] Keat Chhon’s Followers, the Official Hul Ponnarath, of Destroying what Khmer Citizens Are Interested in [by not cooperating with project management officials, and claiming two new pick-up cars for his personal use, which stalls the project implementation at seven locations in the east of the country]
• Kandal Fishery Official [Khlaing Vanthol] Allows Yuon [Vietnamese] Merchants to Use Illegal Fishery Tools

Have a look at the last editorial – The struggle towards openness and access to information happens in many places – and it may help to mutually learn from other experiences.

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