Cambodian men trafficked into Thailand as slaves

Taing and his cousin were told they would be gardeners in Thailand,
but instead they were forced to work on Thai fishing boats.

Each year, hundreds of Cambodian men, many impoverished farmers, are
lured from their homes with the promise of better-paying jobs in
Thailand, only to find themselves on Thai fishing boats plying the
waters of the South China Sea.

"We were told we would earn good money," Taing Ky, 37, a
father-of-five from Cambodia's Kampot Province, about 200km southwest
of Phnom Penh, told IRIN. After six months, they managed to escape
while the boat was offloading on Benjina island in northern Indonesia.
There they were picked up by local authorities.

Thousands of Cambodian men are now believed to be working against
their will in exploitative working conditions on long-haul trawlers
well beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies, and often alongside
Burmese men.

"It's slavery. There's no other way to describe it," Lim Tith,
national project coordinator for the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human
Trafficking (UNIAP), told IRIN.

Thousands exploited

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), about
125,000 Cambodians are registered as working legally in Thailand,
including more than 25,000 in the fishing sector.

But with formal migration costs becoming prohibitive and limited
economic opportunities for Cambodians at home, it is widely believed
the number of undocumented Cambodians in Thailand is significantly
higher; many are trafficked.

Of the 89,096 Cambodians deported from Thailand in 2009 for illegal
migration, more than 20,000 (23 percent) were reportedly trafficked,
according to a 2010 UNIAP Human Trafficking Sentinel Surveillance.

And while about 31 percent of Cambodian fishermen deported from
Thailand reported being trafficked, those on fishing boats far from
Thai shores for up to a year at a time are more difficult to track and
regularly drop off the radar.

"This is a big problem, but the cases we actually receive are really
just the tip of the iceberg," said Lim Tith. "The true number of men
being trafficked in this manner is much higher."

In addition, the problem appears to be shifting from Malaysia to
Indonesian waters, where more and more men are now being reported, 25
this year alone, he said.

Traumatized

Those lucky enough to escape report 20-hour work days, food
deprivation, regular beatings and threats at the hands of the crew,
many of whom are armed.

"The captain had a gun. We had no choice but to work," said one survivor.

So bad are conditions that those deemed expendable are tossed overboard.

"Many of these men have been badly traumatized by what's happened to
them," Mom Sok Char, programme manager for Legal Support for Children
and Women (LSCW), a local NGO and one of the first to monitor the
trafficking of men, explained. "After months of forced labour, that's
understandable."

Culturally, most men do not seek psychological support, he said,
making follow-up and adjustment back into the community particularly
difficult.

"More and more men are falling victim and this is a genuine concern of
the Cambodian government," San Arun, chairwoman of the Cambodian
Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT)
taskforce, agreed. "It's not just women and children any more," she
said, calling for greater regional cooperation on trafficking.

Thai action urged

Earlier this month, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, called on
the Thai government to "do more to combat human trafficking
effectively and protect the rights of migrant workers who are
increasingly vulnerable to forced and exploitative labour.

"Thailand faces significant challenges as a source, transit and
destination country," said the UN expert at the end of her 12-day
mission to the country.

"The trend of trafficking for forced labour is growing in scale in the
agricultural, construction and fishing industries," she said.

While commending the Thai government with the enactment of the
Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2008, she warned that the
implementation and enforcement of the law remained "weak and
fragmented", often hampered by corruption, especially among low-cadre
law enforcement officers at provincial and local levels.

"Thailand must do more to combat human trafficking effectively,"
Ezeilo concluded.

Thai authorities say there is little they can do about the trafficked
Cambodians working on Thai fishing boats, particularly when the
alleged crimes occurred outside Thai waters, if they do not report it.

According to UNIAP, most of the deportees who were exploited choose
not to report their cases due to fear of their broker, employer, or
the police; a lack of understanding of their rights; and/or inability
to speak Thai.

Source :
PHNOM PENH,
29 August 2011 (IRIN)
http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=93606

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Cambodia’s literacy

Cambodia's literacy has improved over the past decade, but key
challenges remain for girls, the rural poor and minorities, education
experts say.

According to government figures, the literacy rate stands at about 70
percent. But that may only be basic literacy, where another ability,
functional literacy, is harder to define.

Still, education experts say that still leaves 30 percent of the
population without the ability to read or write, though that
percentage could improve as the younger generation goes through school
to learn to read and write.

Ministry of Education officials say they count a total enrollment of
3.2 million students, with about 607,000 in urban areas and more than
2.5 million in rural areas.

"This gathering of students at school means it is serving literacy,"
Ou Eng, director general of the ministry, told VOA Khmer Thursday.
"Cambodian students must get an education, and the first education is
literacy."

The literacy rate has improved greatly in the last 10 years. Unesco
said in 1999 only about 37 percent of the population was "functionally
literate," with another 26.6 percent only "semi-literate."

Santosh Khatri, an education specialist at Unesco, said Thursday that
no further functional literacy tests have been conducted, so the rate
now is unknown.

"Basic literacy is very important to build up on the functional
literacy," he said, but functional literacy has many levels and is
hard to test.

Literacy is an important factor in quality of life, he said. It can
improve one's livelihood, skills and abilities, and help maintain
peace.

Key challenges remain for Cambodia, including reducing the disparity
of literacy rates among different groups.

Khatri said the adult literacy rate of Cambodia was 77.6 percent, but
there was a wide gap between male (85.1 percent) and female (71
percent). The gap is even wider between urban dwellers (90.4 percent)
and those in rural areas (74 percent). Minority groups, too, struggle
with literacy.

Kan Kal, country director for Room to Read, a literacy NGO, said that
urban-rural gap remained "worrisome."

Other experts worry that the progress in literacy has slowed.

"We need to strengthen the process," said Naoko Arakawa, an education
specialist at Unesco.

And teachers say they worry as well.

"Among my 24 students in Grade 6, there are six students who cannot
read," said Ros Tith Malay, a teacher at Boeung Traboek primary
school. Those who cannot read often come from poor homes or live with
domestic violence, she said.

Rong Chhun, who is head of the Cambodian Independent Teachers
Association, said Thursday that many girls and boys only attend lower
level classes, but they soon fall out of the system. The Cambodian
education system does not aim for "quality," he said.

However, Ou Eng of the Ministry of Educaiton said the government is
now putting more focus on literacy, especially for children.

"Now we are prepared to publish new books to make it easier than
before for children to read and write," he said.

Cambodia Facing Ongoing Literacy Challenges
Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh

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