Several Cambodian civil society groups, mainly land rights activists and monks from the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice (IMNSJ), together with an opposition CNRP lawmaker and a union leader, joined in front of the Thai embassy to protest the treatment of the 200,000 migrant workers, both legal and illegal, who were forced to leave Thailand within a week in a bid by the military junta to regulate the flow of migrants. The exodus and the ensuing pressure on Cambodia can also be considered as a warning sign by the Thai military not to harbour an organised Thai opposition within its territory.
The Boeung Kak lake community keeps putting pressure on the Phnom Penh Municipality. This time 18 families who were evicted in 2010 during the filling of the lake with sand, started in 2007 by a development company, demand that land titles be issued according to the size fo the land they had and not to the size of their former house.
At the same time a group of evictees from Kompong Chhnang who lost 100 hectares were protesting in the shadow of a tree in front of the Ministry of Justice.
There seems to be no end to these land issues…
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes and which reports on land issues in Cambodia since the year 2000 with texts by Robert Carmichael and over 700 photographs.
The full set about the migrant exodus photographs is now uploaded on my website at THIS LINK… We’re talking about 55 photographs.
It’s not because there is a sample here below that you shouldn’t visit and see the rest ;-)…
Over the past week, and following the military coup in Thailand, nearly 200,000 Cambodian migrant workers have come back to their home country. It seems a series of crackdowns by the Thai immigration on illegal immigrants, combined with as of yet unfounded rumors of Cambodians having been killed by the Thai authorities, has triggered a feeling of insecurity among the Cambodian community in Thailand, sufficient to make them head back to their village. All of them…
For many it is back to square one: having left because migrating to Thailand is the only solution to provide some revenue to the family, the returnees now find themselves facing the same issue of unemployment in a country which should seriously question its ability to provide jobs for its citizens.
The Cambodian authorities and a couple of NGO’s (the U.N.’s I.O.M., Samaritan’s Purse) have spared no effort to alleviate the immediate pressure on the border town of Poipet by that many returnees going home in such a short period of time, providing medical assistance, army trucks to bring back the migrants to their home provinces, and distributing food upon their arrival.
The crisis at the border was rather well managed. The government now will have to address the core of the problem: unemployment.
The communities of Boeung Kak lake, supported by others, gathered at the World Bank offices for yet another demonstration regarding their ongoing land issue. They hand signed a piece of paper with fake blood and left it at the gate of the compound.
UPDATE: Surya Subedi, the U.N. special envoy for Human Rights to Cambodia, is back in Phnom Penh…
PS: I will leave for Poipet with the night bus to cover the massive influx of Cambodians fleeing Thailand.
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes and which reports on land issues in Cambodia since the year 2000 with texts by Robert Carmichael and over 700 photographs.
Here is a small sample of a story shot for ‘Libération’ back in 1986. There is much more AT THIS LINK.
Posted Friday Jun 13, 2014, in
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The workers from the Ocean garment factory, owned by Bangladeshi capital and providing clothes to GAP, are on a strike to obtain their full salary instead of the 15$ offered by the management for the months operations were suspended at the factory for a lack of orders. This morning, with stalled negotiations and fearing the factory would close down, they walked towards the Ministry of Labour and possibly Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house but were whisked away inside the Porsenchey municipality compound for a series of negotiations. Mr. Ho Vann, opposition CNRP MP, was prevented by municipal security guards from addressing the workers inside the compound and subsequently requested to stay away from the entrance gate.
This is a follow-up post on my ebook ‘A Fine Thread’, available for your iPad on iTunes HERE.
Mu Sochua, opposition CNRP MP, made yet another attempt to reach Freedom Place, sealed off from the public since early January after the violent crackdown on striking workers and a series of CNRP mass demonstrations following the July 2013 elections. She was yet again prevented from doing so by the police…
Not far from there, members of the Boeung Kak lake community who were evicted from their land some 5 years ago, staged a demonstration in front of the Phnom Penh municipality to demand a better compensation for the lost property.
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes and which reports on land issues in Cambodia since the year 2000 with texts by Robert Carmichael and over 700 photographs.
