A Cambodian authorities delegation urged migrant employees at a competition in Thailand to again Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian Folks’s Get together, an opposition activist informed RFA.
At a celebration for the Cambodian Pchum Ben ancestor remembrance competition on Sunday, CPP officers promised the migrants that the federal government would assist them navigate the method for working legally in Thailand, Pong Socheat, a consultant for the banned Cambodian Nationwide Rescue Get together (CNRP), informed RFA’s Khmer Service.
“I met the employees, who informed me that the Cambodian Folks’s Get together parts got here to influence them to hitch the CPP. They all the time promise to assist course of paperwork they should work,” Pong Socheat mentioned.
“However the employees are usually not swayed by that as a result of they don’t like the way in which Hun Sen’s regime guidelines the nation,” Pong Socheat mentioned.
The CPP has been focusing on the Cambodian diaspora for assist in international locations like the USA, Australia, Japan, South Korea and in neighboring Thailand, the place, in accordance with labor NGOs, roughly 2 million Cambodian migrant employees reside, each legally and illegally.
Cambodia’s Minister of Labor Ith Sam Heng led the delegation of officers and embassy workers as they met with round 4,000 Cambodian migrants on the competition occasion in Thailand’s Samute Prakan province close to the capital Bangkok.
Ith Sam Heng informed the employees that the Cambodian authorities is taking care of migrant employees, who remit greater than U.S. $2 billion to their households in Cambodia annually.
“For our brothers and sisters who work in Thailand I want to re-emphasize that the federal government … will proceed to pay shut consideration to you by taking an effort to maintain your job and enterprise alternatives for you thru the sturdy cooperation with Thailand,” Ith Sam Heng mentioned on the occasion.
He praised Hun Sen, who has successfully dominated Cambodia since 1985, for overseeing an period of peace, improvement and cooperation with the nation’s neighbors “in order that we can provide alternatives for our brothers and sisters to work right here. And he’ll proceed to take care of our brothers and sisters”
However Pong Socheat mentioned that Ith Sam Heng made a mistake by bringing alongside State Secretary Heng Bitter, who he mentioned was notorious for threatening to kill abroad Cambodian employees who criticize the ruling get together.
“Even in Thailand, Hun Sen’s regime comes after us and threatens us. Even when we simply meet amongst ourselves and talk about our want for change, we’re anxious about our security, as a result of they threaten us, saying the Thai authorities will cooperate with them,” Pong Socheat mentioned.
Many Cambodian migrants have been essential of their authorities for failing to guard their rights and pursuits.
The Khmer neighborhood in Thailand doesn’t consider that authorities officers again dwelling are attempting to assist make their lives simpler, Chhorn Sokheoun, a consultant of the migrant employees, informed RFA. For that reason, the CPP will be unable to influence many migrants to hitch the get together, he mentioned.
“The employees attended the Pchum Ben competition in Samute Prakan province as a result of it’s our Khmer custom. However solely a really small quantity can be brainwashed by the CPP’s political ideology,” Chhorn Sokheoun mentioned.
“The vast majority of employees didn’t attend the gathering as a result of they clearly perceive that working in Thailand is troublesome. As for the passports and different needed doc points, the federal government has not been useful. It has all the time ignored the employees’ issues,” he mentioned.
Thuch Thy, who’s from Cambodia’s western Battambang province however now works illegally in Thailand, mentioned the price of residing in her new house is immense. A allow to work legally prices greater than 17,000 baht (about $450), she mentioned. However Thuch Thy mentioned she has no selection however to work in Thailand as a result of her household has money owed in Cambodia and the wages supplied there are too low.
She mentioned Cambodian migrants in Thailand face many issues, together with labor rights abuses from their employers, however hardly ever obtain assist from Cambodian officers.
“I’ve been working in Thailand for 15 years. I’ve by no means seen any [Cambodian] authorities come to supply any emotional or monetary assist. I’ve suffered from poverty and survived floods and heavy rains, however I’ve by no means seen any help donations from my authorities. If Cambodia had job alternatives like in Thailand, I wouldn’t have left my village,” mentioned Thuch Thy.
Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
