Human rights workers and government officials are worried about the safety of an alleged victim in a sex trafficking case, after a Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Thursday implied he would have her arrested for illegally entering the country.
Judge Hing Thearith, in a pre-trial hearing Thursday morning, said he wanted to arrest the underage Vietnamese girl for illegally entering Cambodia and then deport her, according to Sieng Boravy, a lawyer representing the girl.
“Han,” whose name has been changed to protect her identity, entered Cambodia without documentation as she was allegedly led by human traffickers through Cambodia, Southern China and Macau, according to Pierre Legros, the regional coordinator for the Agency for Women in Precarious Situations (Afesip), which now has Han under its care.
Han returned to Cambodia from Macau last year and helped Afesip investigate some of her alleged traffickers, Legros said. The investigation led to the arrest of Thang Him Min, 35, in June 2001 on charges related to human trafficking, police said.
Thang Him Min’s trial has been postponed twice, but Hing Thearith said the court will pursue the case.
He also said he wanted to investigate Han’s status in the country.
“I have not issued the warrant yet,” Hing Thireath said Thursday evening. Later in the same interview, when asked to respond to Afesip concerns that an arrest warrant for Han would be issued today, he said: “This organization spoiled the court’s secret.”
Legros said he fully expected police to pick up Han today. “The police will come,” he said Thursday.
“This is unacceptable,” said Naly Pilorge, director of the human rights group Licadho. “The court should be looking at investigating the case that was presented to them, and ensuring the protection of the victim and the witnesses.”
Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua said Thursday that the court’s primary duty should be to pursue the “very solid, very serious” sex trafficking case, and expressed concern for Han’s safety.
“She is the prize witness to a possible ring of traffickers,” said Mu Sochua, who spent all day Thursday exploring options to ensure Han’s safety. “What if something happens to her?”
No options were found Thursday, Legros said, so Han remained under the care of Afesip.
Hing Thireath said the court could not move forward with the case because the witness did not appear in court Thursday.
The stalled sex trafficking case comes at a time of increased scrutiny of the problem of human trafficking in Southeast Asia.
Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng is in Bali, Indonesia, this week for a regional anti-trafficking conference. Peter Leuprecht, the UN’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, is set to begin an official visit in Cambodia Sunday, and judicial reform is on the agenda.
Legros said he feared for Han’s safety and also feared corruption in the court because evidence pointed to the cooperation of Vietnamese and Chinese crime syndicates.
Human rights officials say the case is important because Han is just one of the thousands of women and children who are trafficked through Cambodia for illegal work or sexual exploitation.
An estimated 400 to 800 Cambodian women and children are trafficked to foreign countries for sex each month, according to the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center.
Bringing traffickers to justice is difficult, said Oung Chanthol, director of the center. “If powerful, rich people are involved with the case, it is very difficult [to prosecute],” she said.
Only 30 percent of all trafficking cases in Cambodia lead to a conviction, and most perpetrators receive light sentences, often between three and six years. Others are simply dismissed, Oung Chanthol said.
Human rights officials fear Han’s case could go the same way.
And they fear she may follow the same path as many other illegally trafficked women in Cambodia, who have received little or no justice and then were deported.
In February 2000, 51 Chinese and Vietnamese women were released from a Phnom Penh garment factory, where they claimed they were being held against their will and not being paid.
All of them were deported. The garment factory manager paid some of their wages. There was no court case.
Later in 2000, seven Eastern European women were found in a Phnom Penh hotel, where they said they had been tricked into prostitution. They were deported, and the traffickers were not punished, Oung Chanthol said.
Hing Thireath said Thursday that he would investigate Han’s status in Cambodia.
“In [some of] the cases that relate to Vietnamese girls, they ask someone to help them to go abroad, and after that they spend all their money, their visa runs out, and then they file a suit against the ones who helped them,” Hing Thireath said.
“Help meaning what?” asked Mu Sochua.
