Seng Sakada, director-general of the Labor Ministry’s labor department, will lead a delegation to Singapore on Saturday to study the ministry’s pilot program to send domestic workers to the city-state, a recruitment agency director confirmed Wednesday.
The team will investigate the success of the program, which has in the past year sent at least 220 Cambodian women to work in Singapore.
Joining Mr. Sakada on the trip will be representatives of three well-connected recruitment agencies given exclusive rights to the Singapore project: Sok Leap Metrey, which is owned by Mr. Sakada’s daughter Seng Toussita, Philimore Cambodia, and the Ung Rithy Group.
Lao Lyhock, director of Philimore, said that the four-day visit would attempt to identify whether the flaws in the program were caused by maids or their employers.
This month, at least six Cambodian women have broken their contracts and returned from Singapore with stories of debt bondage and abuse.
