A broker for migrant workers is in jail, and anti-human trafficking police are seeking a warrant to investigate a Phnom Penh-based employment agency after nine underage girls were discovered in a house while waiting to travel to Malaysia for housekeeping jobs, police said Sunday.
Twenty-two families in Kompong Chhnang province filed complaints about poor living conditions and a lack of food at the house in Phnom Penh run by the job agency, according to provincial anti-human trafficking police chief Prak Saony.
“The families decided to sue the [employment] broker because their children sent them letters about bad living conditions,” she said.
The broker, Sot Yat, 47, is in pretrial detention for forging the names and ages of nine girls, all under the age of 16, Ms Saony added, explaining that Ms Yat received $150 for each girl sourced for the firm Human Resources Development Co.
“Their parents agreed to have their children’s ages and names changed to get a job in Malaysia as domestic workers,” Ms Saony said, adding that she believes two more underage girls were also staying in the house.
The house is owned by HRDC, Ms Saony said, adding that representatives of the company have been asked to present themselves for questioning.
Representatives of HRDC could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court Chief Prosecutor Penh Vibol said that Ms Yat has been charged under the anti-human trafficking law. He added that he is awaiting a warrant from the court to investigate both HRDC and the parents of the young girls.
“I will ask permission from the court to investigate [Ms Yat’s] accomplices,” including HRDC and the girls’ mothers, Mr Vibol said.
John McGeoghan, project coordinator for the International Organization for Migration, said that he hadn’t yet heard about the case, but that it was an unusual one.
“We don’t run into these cases very often at all,” he said.
He explained that the IOM usually encourages migrant workers to go through official channels, including agencies like HRDC. “In theory, this is a safe and official and human rights-based way that works in the best interest of the workers,” as well as employers, he said.
Oum Mean, secretary of state for the Ministry of Labor, said that he would look into the case today.
