Kampong Speu,Cambodia

Presenter: Martyna Gacek

Forum Asia FoundationExploitative Recruiting and

Trafficking in Kampong Speu

Kampong Speu, CambodiaPresenter: Martyna Gacek

31.03.2011

Kampong Speu,Cambodia

Presenter: Martyna Gacek

Forum Asia FoundationExploitative Recruiting and

Trafficking in Kampong Speu

Kampong Speu, CambodiaPresenter: Martyna Gacek

31.03.2011

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Our Approach

• SSF takes a preemptive approach to trafficking

• We attempt to identify at-risk children and provide sustainable assistance to them and their families.

• We work at three levels (individual, family and village) with the goal of strenthening families andsocial infrastructure to protect children.

• SSF has identified far more at-risk children than we can fully support. We focus on protecting girls who are 10 or older because they face the highest risk of trafficking.

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Our Interventions

• We have 2 interlinked programs: Child Protection and Livelihoods.

• Child Protection includes a Protection Center, Learning Center, and support for students and their families in 13 villages.

• Livelihoods works in partnership with 250 households in three villages.

• We also respond to individual cases of violenceand abuse of children and women, including rape, forced prostitution, trafficking and child labor.

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Where we work

• Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia

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Why Kampong Speu?

• The province’s proximity to Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, and the extreme poverty in many of its villages make its residents extremely vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.

• High rates of unemployment, under employment, food insecurity, malnutrition and high debts are common.

• Educational opportunities are limited, escpecially in rural areas. About 17% of schools have no access to water, 12% have toiles and one-fith of all classrooms have dirt floors.

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Why Kampong Speu?

• More than one in seven households is headed by a single mother (15%).

• More than 40% of the province’s residents are under 18

• About 12% of residents leave the province in search of either seasonal or year round work each year.

• There are only 31 public health centers. (1 for every 24,000 people).

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Preach Bhat Village

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Finding Wanna

• While in Pchea Bhat village we came across our first case of a girl who had gone missing in Malaysia.

• Her name is Wanna and she is between 13 and 16 years old.

• Her birth certificate was altered to raise her age to 18 by a village leader.

• She left for Malaysia on May 29, 2010• She has not been heard from since.

• Her parents asked us to help locate her.

Wanna

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More Cases

• As word spread from village to village that we were assisting Wanna’s family we began receiving complaints from other families.

• Within 2 months we had accumulated 26 cases, but only 10 families asked for assistance.

• Eight cases involve missing girls and women.

• One involves a missing 18 year old male.

• One case involves a woman who returned from Malaysia after one year without any salary.

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Companies and Recruitment Practices

• The companies are Philimore Cambodia, T&P, Eung Rithy Group, VC Man Power, CRT, and Cambodia Labour Supply Ltd.

• The recruitment techniques range from radio advertisements, to flyers, and appeals by local authorities and brokers.

• The recruitment process is characterized by a high level of deception and misinformation.

• Once the girls and women are in the training centers communication with families is either monitored or severed.

Case 1 Returning from Malaysia penniless and abused

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Case 2 Escaping a training center

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Case 3 Escaping from a household in Malaysia

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Case 4 Trapped in a home in Malaysia

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Our Actions

• SSF is working with other NGOs and investigators from SISHA and Phnom Penh Human Trafficking Police.

• We held a meeting between the families and the investigators this week.

• The families were terrified before the meeting.

• We spent several hours reassuring them that they would be safe.

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Our Actions

• They also became frightened during the meeting when they realized the extent of the problem.

• After the meetings they were more trusting of the investigators and SSF.

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Conclusions

• Because we work inside the communities targeted by recruiters we can identify the social, economic and familial dynamics that they exploit.

• We see the tremendous suffering, fear and guilt of the families.

• We can act as a bridge between investigators and families.

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Recomendation

• If the root causes of trafficking are not solved, efforts to prevent will fail.

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