by Poppy McPherson

by Poppy McPherson
17 December 2018

The vehicles are old, overcrowded, and driven at speed. Passengers jump on and off in the middle of the road,..

This is the most dangerous part of a Cambodian garment worker's day. When she finishes a shift, she can't just pass out, exhausted after 12 hours stitching clothes for brands like Zara, Gap, and H&M for a basic monthly wage of $140 plus overtime. Instead, she endures a sometimes multiple-hour commute standing on the back of a truck or in an overloaded minibus. On a good day, there's just the dizziness—induced by crazy driving, compounded by malnourishment—and searing heat of the April summer or a rainy season downpour to contend with. On a bad day, there's a crash.

That's not an option for people like Ton, who endures up to four hours on the trucks everyday so she can spend time with her son. "Sometimes if I get lucky I can chit-chat with him, and play with him, for half an hour or an hour," she says. But sometimes he's already asleep, so she washes, cooks and goes to bed. The trucks come back to her village before 5am the next morning. "I feel so tired, so exhausted, everyday but I have no options," she says.

Reoun Sinoun stares out at the road. "I feel like I'm spinning," she says. "I feel miserable inside." She dreams of opening a nail or hair salon. But as the youngest in her family, she has had too many responsibilities

Full https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/jpyy ... ur-clothes

..malnourishment..

Half starving themselves to send money home
They have to really chisel to save anything at all
Long long days in exhausting and unhealthy conditions
Away from family, an awful thing for any Khmer woman
Look how wan they are.

I talked to the guy who runs what's almost a monopoly of the shuttle traffic to the SEZ outside Koh Kong. He uses trucks with bench seats in the back. He told me when all the seats were full the truck left "no one stands, it's demeaning and unsafe". The drivers work for his company and are paid a daily rate, they don't get paid directly by the riders, and they get fired if they try to ask for extra or pickup passengers en route. I don't know if all that is true, I have not seen anyone standing in his trucks though. He also claims that all his drivers are licensed.

As I said, I don't know if it's all true. From my observations conditions seemed to be better, the commute there is also much shorter.

I don't really understand what you are getting at. Maybe I should have said " I have no way of verifying the veracity of his claims", but I thought that " I don't know if this is true" conveyed that. This does not change the fact that over a period of a few weeks, and occasional visits since, I have not seen anyone standing in his company trucks. This in comparison to the photo in the article, and again, what I have seen around Kanpong Speu.

it is a sad tail indeed. so many honest people work extremely hard and stay in poverty, it's heartbreaking. with a lot of Cambodians wages, I find it amazing they make ends meet. I also realize there are many who do not.
There are many things the government can do to help its citizens and I do not understand why they do not do it.

Clemen wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 8:22 pm I don't really understand what you are getting at. Maybe I should have said " I have no way of verifying the veracity of his claims", but I thought that " I don't know if this is true" conveyed that. This does not change the fact that over a period of a few weeks, and occasional visits since, I have not seen anyone standing in his company trucks. This in comparison to the photo in the article, and again, what I have seen around Kanpong Speu.

some are thick and not worth your time