Human trafficking along Cambodia’s borders is on the rise, according to estimates from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Oum Chenda, the ministry’s undersecretary of state, said Wednesday.
“Cambodia has noticed that it’s a country of passing and receiving of trafficking from other countries,” she said, addressing participants of a three-day anti-trafficking workshop hosted by the ministry.
Oum Chenda said although the ministry does not have current figures to measure the problem, its estimates show that human trafficking has increased due to rising poverty, which forces people to migrate to regions where work is easier to find.
She added that globalization is contributing to the rise because it widens the gap between the rich, who usually reside in urban centers, and the poor in the rural areas.
Often, she said, human trafficking involves prostitution. Vietnamese girls are often smuggled into Cambodia, she said, while Cambodian men and children are illegally brought into Thailand and other countries, where they are exploited for their labor.
Oum Chenda said the aim of this week’s workshop is to train civil servants to prevent human trafficking so they can relay that information to their fellow villagers. The 27 participants include 12 senior female civil servants from Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Pursat, Kompong Thom, Kompong Cham and Siem Reap provinces.
She said the ministry hopes to collect from workshop participants data related to human trafficking, which can then be used in government policy decisions.
“We can complain to the government to strengthen the law system when we get all data linking to human trafficking,” she said. “Law enforcement is very important to punish the human smugglers and reduce human trafficking of women and children.”
The workshop is the ministry’s first step in a three-year plan aimed at combating human trafficking. The plan is sponsored by the International Organization Migration’s Phnom Penh office and funded by the US Agency for International Development.
