As
of 2013, about 30,000 Cambodians were working in Malaysia, mainly as housemaids
according to the Home Minister at the time Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi [1].
These
figures show that a great number of Cambodians migrate abroad to countries
including Malaysia and Thailand with the hope of getting better paying
jobs. It is an issue of much concern to
the Cambodian government because many fall into the hands of traffickers who
use them for sex work or put them into forced labor in the Thai fishing and
seafood industry[2],
agricultural plantations, in factories, domestic work and in begging and street
selling.
According
to a report by Equitas, a philanthropic organization that advocates for the
vulnerable and oppressed, the rise in migration began after Indonesia banned its
citizens from being sent as domestic workers to Malaysia in 2009. This meant
that approximately 35,000 Malaysian families were waiting to hire domestic
workers.
Recruitment
of domestic workers from Cambodia is legalized and allowed by the Cambodian
government through licenses recruitment agencies. The government of Cambodia
joined forced with 30 recruitment companies to do the work. In 2010 alone,
licensed labor recruitment agencies in Cambodia, under the Association of Cambodian Recruiting Agencies, trained and sent up to
16, 395 workers to Malaysia alone, of which 11, 918 were trained as domestic
workers. The Cambodian government even
set up a training center in their country so that women seeking to migrate to
Malaysia could learn Bahasa Malaysia, the culture of Malaysia and work ethics
before they embark on their journey to work in Malaysia.
Most
of the women and children recruited come from very poor families in provincial
villages especially rice farmers and they have very little to no education with
most of them having completed only 2 or 3 years of primary school or having
never gone to school[3]. Also most of them are
Cambodian Muslims known as “Cham” who make up about 3% of the Cambodian
population who are more likely to come to Malaysia due to a shared faith with
Malaysian Muslims. Most of them learn about the job opportunities through local
brokers who make up to $100 for every woman they recruit. The families of the
recruited women are paid around $100 up front along with a bag of rice or new
mobile phone. Recruitment advertisements also play on the radio, inviting women
to “earn $180 every month doing easy and safe work in Malaysia”. The recruited
women and girls are taken to Phnom Penh to be trained in the centres for about
3 months and then fly to Malaysia.
According
to Equitas, women and girls who work as domestic workers are likely to “face
physical abuse, cursing, beating, withholding of wages and passport,
confiscation of phones, being locked in training centres and houses, prevented
from contacting family and even sexual abuse”. According to the report, at that
time (in 2011) there was an increase in the number of cases involving sexual
abuse (nearly 50%) and it was getting worse.
According
to a report by Amnesty International,
“If the girl attempts to run away from the house,
she can face trouble from the agency or employer if they come looking for her.
The employer can cancel her work permit (and she will immediately become an
undocumented worker), and/or the police or RELA Corps can arrest her for not
having her passport and put her in a detention center. Here, she is not treated
as a victim, but as a criminal. Even if they attempted to identify her as a
trafficking victim, her inability to speak Bahasa Malaysia or English and lack
of education on her rights, prevents her from advocating for herself properly.”
The
Cambodian recruitment agencies although aware of the seriousness of the abuse
of Cambodian adult and child migrant workers within Cambodia and abroad, they
did not put in much effort to address the issue.
In
2009, a labor broker was arrested for capturing 9 children with the intent of
selling them to work as servants in Malaysia. This shows that many of the
recruitment agencies are responsible for abduction, detention and confinement
of women and children recruited for work abroad and they engaged in fraudulent
recruitment. Sadly, the police also
failed to pursue investigations into alleged labor trafficking claims due to
affiliations of said agencies with high-ranking officials.
As
a result, in 2011, the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen suspended the sending
of domestic workers to Malaysia due to reports of abuse and sexual exploitation
and sought greater protection for its citizens abroad asking for basic human
rights including health insurance and a safe and secure bedroom. The MoU draft
also asked for workers’ rights which included stipulating a minimum wage and a
labor contracted that protect the domestic workers. In fact, the government is
hoping to lift the ban to improve its economy but is still waiting for the MoU
stipulations to be accepted fully before doing so.
Although
the ban is still in place, Cambodian women still do make it into Malaysia to
work as domestic workers, usually illegally. This poses extra difficulties for
the Malaysian government.
Meanwhile,
the abuse and trafficking, as well as recruitment through illegal channels and
illegal immigration into Malaysia still continues.
…
In the next
post on Cambodians in Malaysia, we will look at how best to counsel such
victims including those who are trafficked, exploited and
abused.
[3] http://equitasgroup.org/_blog/Equitas/post/Many_Cambodians_trafficked_to_Malaysia_An_Interview_with_Chab_Dai's_Aimee_Brammer/
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