Police found 90 women, who were awaiting placement as housekeepers in Malaysia, locked inside a Phnom Penh villa during a raid on a labor export company Tuesday, police officials said.
The gate was locked Wednesday at Philimore Cambodia Co Ltd’s site in Chamkar Mon district’s Tuol Svay Prey I commune.
“We do not allow them to go out,” Chhoy Vutha, a company guard said. “They may disappear.”
Police raided the company—the second probe into a labor export company in recent weeks—after an aunt of one trainee complained after the trainee, Mong Ravy, 19, was not allowed to visit her sick parents in Takeo province, said Meng Say, of Phnom Penh’s anti-human trafficking office.
“When the police arrived, we were just looking for her,” he said.
Police found Mong Ravy and returned her to Takeo, he said. Police announced that any of the other women could leave with them but none did, Meng Say said.
“When we arrived, we saw that the situation is strange, because we saw that the girls have had their hair cut,” he said. “They look like men.” His report will go to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for further action or investigation.
The women and their parents signed contracts obliging them to remain at the center and accept liability if they decide not to go to Malaysia, company finance officer Leng Vichheka said Wednesday.
Contracts also require women to be of pleasant appearance and have no deformities. The women are trained to do housework, cook, watch children, care for the elderly and massage their bosses, Leng Vichheka said.
Although police are not considering it a trafficking case, Philimore is the latest labor export company accused of limiting the freedom of its workers.
“We are more and more interested in these types of agencies because of the recent developments of trafficking to Malaysia,” said Aarti Kapoor, a legal adviser for the NGO Afesip, which participated in the raid.
Three women were repatriated last year after they were trafficked for sex work in Malaysia.
Last month, Cambodian Labor Supply Ptd Ltd, came under fire for prohibiting girls from visiting their parents, without first paying a large deposit.
In December, the Ministry of Social Affairs reported Cambodian Labor Supply, Philimore and five others were licensed. The ministry has checked into these companies to certify them, Chuor Eangly, deputy director of employment and manpower, said Wednesday. He said ministry investigations revealed the women were not confined against their will.
(Additional reporting by Nhem Chea Bunly)
