Cambodian officials announced Thursday that they have temporarily put a stop to all marriages between Cambodian women and foreign men.
Bith Kimhong, director of the anti-human trafficking police department at the Interior Ministry, said by telephone that his ministry issued a notice Saturday to all municipal and provincial governors ordering them to temporarily cease issuing documentation allowing Cambodian women to marry foreign men.
“We have no clear schedule for this marriage suspension, it is just for a short while. We will allow foreign marriages very soon,” he said.
“Not all Cambodian brides have been trafficked in marriage…. But there are some bad people who use such marriages to commit crimes,” he said, calling the suspension a “great step in combating human trafficking.”
Following the release of an International Organization for Migration report warning of the heightened vulnerability of Cambodian brides flocking to South Korea, the South Korean embassy announced Wednesday that it had suspended the issuance of marriage visas at the urging of the Cambodian government.
Cambodian officials confirmed Thursday that the suspension is not limited to any one country.
Ministry of Women’s Affairs Secretary of State You Ay said Thursday that the “measure covers all foreign nations and does not discriminate.”
“We acknowledge in the past the positive benefits for Cambodian women to marry with foreign men, but recently we have seen some negative impact…like in Taiwan and Korea,” she said, adding that the ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Women’s Affairs are working together to draft legislation covering the issue and that the suspension is “very temporary.”
The Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center, which conducted a fact-finding mission in Taiwan last year, reported 5,219 Cambodian women living in Taiwan, some of whom had been trafficked outright and most of whom it said were enduring some kind of abuse. Nop Sarin Sreyroth, CWCC secretary-general, said 90 percent of the Cambodian women the center interviewed in Taiwan were from Kompong Cham province.
Kompong Cham Governor Hun Neng said Thursday he had suspended marriages between Cambodian women and foreigners in January, before receiving the order from the Ministry of Interior, because of irregularities that had come to his attention.
“I learned of a lot of irregularities dealing with trafficking in marriage from brides who returned, some of whom mentioned having spent time in jail after an explosion of domestic violence,” he said, adding that he had denied 20 couples permission to marry since enforcing the suspension.
“Some reported being locked in guesthouses or hotels after getting married to men who did not turn out to be single,” he said.
Hun Neng said that in 2007, 1,247 Kompong Cham women married foreign men, with 1,142 of them marrying South Koreans. The South Korean embassy reported 1,759 marriage visas issued in 2007, up from only 72 in 2004.
John McGeoghan, project coordinator at IOM, declined to comment on the government’s decision to apply the suspension to men of all foreign nations, but said he would be meeting with government officials today to discuss the issue.
On Wednesday, McGeoghan said he thought the suspension of marriage visas by the South Korean embassy was a good move “until there is an improved system to reduce the vulnerability of the women.”
US embassy spokesman Jeff Daigle said the embassy is “generally supportive of Cambodian efforts to combat human trafficking in all its forms” and is seeking additional details from the government on the suspension of marriages to foreign nationals.
