"Hun Sen pushes for migrant worker safety", 18 February 2020

Prime Minister Hun Sen ... ordered the Labour Ministry to pay attention to the safety of women migrant workers.

“The Ministry of Labour must monitor the welfare of Cambodian female workers abroad to protect them from any abuse,” Mr Hun Sen said ...

Cambodia sends workers to Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. There are around 1.2 million migrant workers who remit a total of about $2 billion annually back to their families in the Kingdom.

..., 36,262 Cambodians were rescued and repatriated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from several countries with most of them being migrant workers, a ministry statement said recently.

It added that most of them were women who were human trafficking or abuse victims.

Heng Sour, a Labour Ministry spokesman, could not be reached for comment ...

De The Hoya, programme officer for labour rights Central, said ... that migrant workers who go to work illegally do so because they lack information about immigration laws.

A code of conduct for Cambodian private recruitment agencies was launched ... for all recruitment agencies to adhere to and ensure the protection of workers’ rights and to support them.

Chou Bun Eng, vice-chair of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT), said ... that there are over one million Cambodians working abroad legally or illegally and more has to be done to solve the legal status of undocumented workers.