Dozens of ramshackle brothels on Sothearos Boulevard’s long-standing red light district were torn down Friday in the city’s latest beautification effort.
A public park is being built in the area and should be finished in time for November’s Water Festival, said Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara.
Seventy to 80 prostitutes had lived in the area, according to Tep Kum, Chamkarmon district deputy police chief.
Workers said Friday that some prostitutes had moved to brothels in Tuol Kok district. Others have returned to their home villages in the countryside.
Deputy District Governor Kuoch Chamroeun said the prostitutes are not allowed to go to Samaki village, where the city government has relocated hundreds of squatters from the area in the last few weeks.
“We want the people in the new village to rebuild their reputation and have happiness without sex workers,” he said.
Dozens of workers knocked out brick walls and tore down wooden shacks piece by piece Friday. Children and elderly women collected the scrap wood to use for cooking fires.
Mon Vy, a 24 year-old who lived in the neighborhood for a year, earning about $30 a month, lingered Friday in the shack where she had worked with three other girls, including her younger sister.
“Running a coffee shop or selling rice is not a good enough way to live, so I will probably go back to my family in Kompong Cham province,” she said.
Samaki, located 20 km from Phnom Penh along Route 4, is the same village where squatters were sent after a large fire destroyed more than 500 homes in late May. That fire took place just a few hundred meters down the street from the brothels that were torn down Friday.
Although the city has provided building materials and other supplies, the new residents have complained the village is too remote.
In the days after the fire, residents of the nearby brothel area were told by authorities that they eventually would have to leave the area. Business at the brothels was shut down earlier this week.
The brothels had been popular with boat race competitors during recent Water Festivals. Health officials worried that revelers, would contract HIV in Phnom Penh before returning to their homes in the provinces.
