Abuse of Cambodian Domestic Workers Before and After Migration

From Recruiters Round Up Cambodians to Work in Malaysia By Amy Lieberman, WeNews, Monday, July 18, 2011

Cambodian women who go abroad to Malaysia to work as domestic workers find the work fraught with abuse. Much of the mistreatment starts right away, in recruitment pre-departure training centers in Phnom Penh.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Cambodian recruitment agencies for domestic migrant workers backtracked on a decision announced in May and said at the end of June they would no longer send domestic workers to Kuwait, following complaints of lack of legal and human rights protection for migrant workers.

But that policy doesn't extend east to Malaysia, which drew more than 16,000 Cambodian domestic workers – almost all of them female – in 2010.

Many workers come home complaining about pay that is withheld for at least four to seven months; work shifts that are unspecified and long; food shortages; and physical and verbal abuse, according to local human rights and labor rights organizations in Phnom Penh, the country's capital.

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