Human Trafficking in Cambodia by Chenda Keo

Author:Chenda Keo [Keo, Chenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Political Science, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781134710522
Google: na_fAQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 20843752
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 6.1 Illegal Cambodian migrants returned from Vietnam, 1996–2008 (source: MoSVY 2008).

Note

No data were available for 1997 (“0” stands for “nr” [not reported] because the Excel system does not accept “nr” in graphic representations of data).

The statistics of returnees from Thailand and Vietnam show distinct migratory patterns. First, there are significantly less illegal Cambodian migrants returned from Vietnam than from Thailand, and the number of returnees from Vietnam was decreasing, while the number of returnees from Thailand was growing. Second, less than 6 percent of the cohorts from Thailand were children, but the latter represented 66.7 percent of the cohorts from Vietnam. According to members of NGOs whom I interviewed, most illegal Cambodian migrants go to Thailand to engage in labor-intensive work. Some children accompany their parents and may work as street beggars, flower sellers, or domestic helpers (see Tep 2010; Friends-International 2011). However, since most migrants to Thailand work as laborers, it is common to find a high representation of adults among the returnees.

On the other hand, the large majority of illegal Cambodian migrants to Vietnam are not involved in labor-intensive work. Their primary activities consist of begging or selling lottery tickets, which essentially rely on women and children who go to Vietnam with their parents or relatives for that purpose. Some children are rented out by their parents and work in Vietnam under the control of the lessees.15 This probably explains why around 70 percent of the returnees from Vietnam were children and women.

Statistics from the DoSVY in the provinces of Banteay Meanchey and Svay Rieng show a growing number of smuggled and perhaps trafficked individuals among returned migrants from Thailand and Vietnam. For example, recorded trafficking cases among Cambodian returnees from both Thailand and Vietnam rocketed from 62 in 2002 to 961 in September 2006 (MoSVY 2006). Because human smuggling can spill over into human trafficking, and the literature suggests that migrants who willingly use the services of smugglers are at risk of being trafficked (i.e., coerced into activities they did not intend to be involved in after they had crossed the border) (Kaye 2003; Salt and Stein 1997; Salter 2008; Surtees 2008), it is possible that the growing number of returned migrants coincides with a growing incidence of both human smuggling and human trafficking.

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