Could this be the effect of bad MFI loans?
Parents leaving Kandal provinces Sa’ang district due to losing their land because of bad debt?
And trying to eek out a living on the streets of PP by using their children to beg?
I'm sure we will never know, as it is not in the interests of certain people to have that kind of information.
But makes you wonder though.

Three Women Arrested in Phnom Penh for Forcing Children to Beg

"
Eight children, aged 3 months to 10 years, were in the care of a “safe center” on Tuesday after three women were accused of forcing them to beg for money on Phnom Penh’s streets, officials said.

The women, related to each child as either a mother or an aunt, were arrested on Monday near an intersection in Tuol Kok district’s Phsar Doeum Kor commune, said Keo Thea, chief of the municipal anti-human trafficking bureau.


Police believe one of the women had hired the 3-month-old baby to be used for begging and forced the other children to beg by hitting them, Mr. Thea said.

Each child could earn 5,000 to 80,000 riel, or $1.25 to $20, per day, he said.

“If the mother forces the child to beg or hires the child to beg, then we will enforce the law,” Mr. Thea said.

Mao Ouk, 48, Sam Kun, 43, and Tey Oun, 18, were accused of “inciting minors to beg,” he said.

If convicted, the women face up to a year in prison and fines of 100,000 to 2 million riel, or about $25 to $500.

The eight children were sent to the municipal department of social affairs and the three women have been detained at the Phnom Penh anti-human trafficking bureau since their arrest, Mr. Thea said on Tuesday. The women would be sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today for questioning, he said.

The women told police they had arrived in Phnom Penh from Kandal province’s Sa’ang district in recent weeks or months, he said...
Read more
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thre ... eg-131873/


Here's a recent report about all the villagers in Sa’ang district up to their necks in debt through MFI loans.

Kandal drowning in debt

"The same World Bank report pointed out that 88 percent of Cambodia’s debts were held by households in the more impoverished rural areas of the country – places like Kandal province’s Sa’ang district, which has one of the highest instances of debt in the country"

http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/kan ... -elections

Sadly, children are often the most efficient beggars because it's hard to resist the plea of a small child for money for food. Unfortunately a lot of these children are being exploited by adults. The adults may be desperately poor, but they are still exploiting the children that they should be protecting and providing for.

Three Women Provisionally Charged for Forcing Minors to Beg
June 30, 2017
Three women arrested for forcing eight children to beg along Phnom Penh’s streets were provisionally charged on Thursday, while the youngsters involved have been sent to the care of an NGO.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor provisionally charged Mao Ouk, 48, Sam Kun, 43, and Tey Oun, 18, with inciting minors to beg, according to court spokesman Sous Vichearandy. If convicted, the trio face up to one year in prison and fines as high as 2 million riel, or about $500.

They were arrested on Monday near an intersection in Tuol Kok district for allegedly compelling the children—each the child, niece or nephew of one of the women, ranging in age from 3 months to 10 years old—to ask for cash.

James Sutherland, a spokesman for Friends International, a child protection NGO, encouraged people to not give money to child beggars.
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thre ... eg-131972/

It's the same in major city's all over the world. But in Phnom Penh I have seen the same group of adults and children on the riverside for years now. Are these classed has professionally working and paying tax (or other) to be legal?

A few things struck me about this report.
They were family members or extended family members.
They came from a village that has been reported as being one of the worst places in the country for debt and subsequent land forfeit.

So, they weren't being run by the cops or the army, or some other criminal gang. Nor were they being run by local parents, such as those children who work selling at the Riverside are.

They were just parents from a very poor village that had probably lost their land to an MFI company over a $1000 loan.

Does this mitigate things for them? After all, the kids need to eat, and there are so many families, many from the same village, trying to eek out a living in PP at the moment. It can't be easy.

Due to lack of detail in the reports we'll just have to hope the NGO's know what they're doing.

Woman charged with abusing child beggars
5 July 2017
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged a woman with unlawful recruitment after military police accused her of forcibly confining seven children and coercing them into begging on the streets of Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh Military Police arrested the woman, Phoung Channy, 50, on Friday in front of a local hotel in Daun Penh district, Phnom Penh’s military police chief Rath Sreang said yesterday.

The police accused her of forcibly confining seven children, including two babies, and coercing them through abuse to beg for money in front of the hotel, in restaurants and on street corners.
One 10-year-old boy told police that the accused forced him to carry an infant and beg for money until midnight at restaurants.
“I got 20,000 riel (about $5) a day from begging and I did not go to school,” the boy told police.

The other children told police that the accused did not provide them with enough food and beat them on their heads, faces and bodies if they refused to beg on the streets and report back to her with their earnings.

In the video of the woman’s interrogation, she admitted to police that she collected the children from “poor parents” and other beggars to use them as a way to make money. She added that she’s been doing it for at least seven years...
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/40001/ ... d-beggars/

Another thread on a similar subject: post154862.html?hilit=begging%20childrem#p154862

I recognise that woman in the last report. She's a nasty piece of work. Definitely not coming in from the provnces to try to survive. I've seen her working the streets for years now,; although, I didn't realise she was running kids too.
Bang her away.

Father charged with forcing children to beg
11 July 2017
A man has been charged with forcing his children to beg at Bokor traffic lights in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district, as the Justice Minister called for tougher legal action against those who exploit young people to earn money.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged Thun Thy, 37, with inciting his five children to beg. His wife was also accused of making the children work to earn cash for the family.
The children are aged one, nine, 10, 14 and 17. They were taken into the custody of social affairs officers and will be cared for at a children’s education centre.

The father has been detained at Prey Sar prison, while his wife was allowed to return to her home town after signing a contract promising to stop begging.

The eldest daughter, who is 17, told police she had been ordered by her parents to beg at traffic lights in Phnom Penh since the age of five. “I have never gone to school. I sleep at the corner of Sihanouk and Monivong Boulevard,” she said.

The third son of the accused, aged 10, is disabled. He was tired after begging one day and fell asleep on the pavement when a drunk driver ran over his back causing serious injury. He said his parents did not take him to hospital, but left him to become disabled and bought him a wheelchair to help him make more money from begging...
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/40170/ ... en-to-beg/

Phoung Channy got eight years for human trafficking.
( Backstory on this woman who was arrested in 2017: posting.php?mode=reply&f=9&t=14166#pr180705)
Woman jailed for forcing kids to beg
9 May 2018

Phnom Penh Municipal Court has sentenced a woman who forced children to beg along the streets of the capital to eight years in prison.
Y Rin, spokesman for the court, confirmed the conviction, but said he could not go into detail because he was not in his office.

According to a statement today from the International Justice Mission Organisation, the court convicted Phoung Channy of human trafficking on Friday, sentencing her to eight years in prison.

Ms Channy was initially arrested in July 2017 by the municipal military police and was charged with human trafficking. Ms Channy admitted to running begging rings for eight years.

Seven children between the ages of six months and 12 years begged on the streets of the capital for her, with each being physically abused.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50487815/w ... ds-to-beg/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Thu May 10, 2018 12:01 am Woman jailed for forcing kids to beg

Fantastic news. Now round up the other Fagans and do the same.

StroppyChops wrote: ↑Thu May 10, 2018 12:07 am

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Thu May 10, 2018 12:01 am Woman jailed for forcing kids to beg

Fantastic news. Now round up the other Fagans and do the same.

Yes, what a nice surprise. And eight years is a serious sentence.