"Domestic workers struggling to make ends meet", 16 June 2020

As the spread of COVID-19 is kept under control in the Kingdom, some sectors have begun to recover with various businesses and enterprises looking to resume operations to regain losses incurred in the previous months...

Independent Democracy of Informal Economy representative Vorn Samphos expressed concerns about the challenges that the local domestic workforce is currently facing, saying a majority of Cambodian maids have lost their jobs. To make matters worse, she added, most of the displaced workers have fallen into debt as there are no welfare programmes or assistance from the government or any other institutions...

Domestic worker Vun Kim Srey told ... CENTRAL: “I have been unemployed since the beginning of the pandemic in Cambodia. It is very difficult to find a job nowadays as people have become warier of one another due to the fear of virus transmission.”

“Our situation continues to worsen as the presence of the virus continues to loom in the country. Most of us cannot pay back our debts as we have also lost our jobs. We are also having a difficult time keeping up with the soaring prices of other fees and products,” said Ms Kim Srey...

She urged relevant institutions to pay more attention to the difficulties faced by domestic workers in Cambodia, saying: “When the workers cannot earn any income to support their families, they are also unable to protect themselves from the virus as they can ill afford to buy masks or alcohol disinfectants.”...