Police on Sunday detained and later released two mothers who were in the process of selling their daughters to a businessman in a Phnom Penh hotel, a police official said.
Mok Chito, chief of police for foreigners, said the two mothers from a Phnom Penh squatter camp were going to sell their virgin daughters, both under 14 years old, to a businessman in the Singapore II Hotel in Don Penh district. A tip from the hotel owner prevented the sale, he added.
“We heard that only Vietnamese sell their daughters, but I guess Cambodians sell their own daughters, too,” Mok Chito said.
The police chief said that after “educating them,” the Cambodian businessman, the girls and their mothers were released Monday.
In a separate incident, a taxi car with seven women, ranging from 16 to 26 years old, was stopped by police in Dangkao district Saturday. They were being transported to Pailin to work in a Pailin karaoke lounge, District Police Chief Mon Savat said.
Karaoke lounges are often thinly disguised fronts for brothels.
The women, from Kompong Speu, Kampot and Takeo provinces and Vietnam were being taken to Pailin by a woman who had recruited them from their homes, Mon Savat said.
They were also educated and released after 48 hours because they were not breaking any laws, he added.
