Another article on the brick factories and Cambodia's debt bondage system:

Impoverished by Drought, Cambodia’s Farmers Face Debt Slavery
Staff Writer by Staff Writer
January 3, 2019
Cambodian Debt Slavery

Bopha should be in school but instead toils seven days a week in a searing brick kiln on the outskirts of Phnom Penh – a 14-year-old trapped in debt bondage in a boom industry preying on the poverty of Cambodia’s farmers.

Unpredictable weather linked to climate change is laying waste to Cambodian fields.

Saddled with debt from failed harvests, tens of thousands of farmers are turning to brick factories, where owners pay off debt in exchange for labor.

The factories feed a surging construction sector, with high-rises cropping up around the capital Phnom Penh and beyond as money – much of it from China – pours into the country.

But for the farmers who shape and bake the clay bricks, Cambodia’s newfound urban prosperity has passed them by.

“I’m not going to school, I’m trying to help pay back the $4,000 that we owe, even if it will take years,” Bopha told AFP, as she loaded clay blocks on to a cart.

“For 10,000 bricks transported, we receive $7.50.”

Cambodian labor law prohibits those aged 12-15 from working if the job is hazardous or interferes with their education.

Yet Bopha works all week with her family.

Like most workers interviewed for this article, they asked that their full names not be used for fear of losing their jobs.

They were driven into the industry two years ago after drought ruined their rice harvest, leaving them with no way of paying back money they borrowed to plant crops.

A factory owner took over the debt and they went to work in the kilns about an hour’s drive from the capital.
https://theglobepost.com/2019/01/02/cam ... t-bondage/

Phnom Penh, Cambodia News: Ith Sam Heng, the Minister of Labor and Vocational Training, has ordered the Director of the Provincial Department of Labor and Training to advise the owners or directors of brick factories, that child labor in the factories is banned and a criminal offense. Debt bondage is also prohibited according to the recent instructions from the Minister.

“The owner or director of any brick factory who fail to comply with these instructions will be subject to fines or criminal charges”.

Ministry reminds departments to prevent child labour
11 June 2019
The Labour Ministry is instructing all local labour departments to inspect local businesses, especially brick factories, to ensure that children are not employed.

In a Labour Ministry statement obtained yesterday, local labour department directors were told to prepare signboards informing business owners that employing minors is banned.
It noted that the signboards should also inform business owners that failing to comply could have legal repercussions.

Labour Minister Ith Samheng said employing minors is illegal, and brick factories must house their employees far away from the site in order to prevent children from going to work with their parents.

“Prohibit all forms of child labour exploitation and the practice of forcing children to work through debt,” Mr Samheng said.
“Owners of brick factories who do not follow this will face fines and closure.”

In October 2018, the Royal Holloway of the University of London released a report stating that the boom in the construction industry in the Kingdom was built on modern slavery.

The report, entitled “Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia”, shed light on “tens of thousands of debt-bonded families in Cambodia [working] to meet Phnom Penh’s insatiable appetite for bricks.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50613085/m ... ld-labour/

Toward Child-Labour Free in Brick Manufacturing by 2020
AKP Phnom Penh, August 31, 2019 --

In its effort to achieve child-labour free in brick factories across Cambodia, the responsible team of the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has launched an intensive campaign in Kandal province – a common place for brick manufacturing in the Kingdom.

Director of the ministry’s Child Labour Department Mr. Veng Heang is leading the campaign started on Aug. 26 in the province, in cooperation with local authorities.

According to the department director, any brick factory found having child labour will be severely penalised without any excuse.

The campaign, he added, is part of the commitment of the Royal Government of Cambodia through the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training to end child labour in harmful brick factories by 2020.
https://www.akp.gov.kh/post/detail/16126

Cambodia Launches Campaign to End Child Labor in Brick Industry
By Leonie Kijewski
September 7, 2019 12:01 PM

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia has launched a campaign to end child labor in the brick industry by 2020, a move industry observers cautiously welcome while expressing doubts the goal will be achieved, and calling for more structural changes.

The industry drew international attention last year when a report, Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia, asserted poverty, often caused by climate change, forced tens of thousands of Cambodians into debt bondage at brick kilns, and again in March when a 9-year-old girl lost her arm working in one of the factories.

The government fined the factory and issued a directive barring children from brick kiln production line compounds. Children often live with their families in accommodation provided for by the brick factory, which often is in the direct vicinity of the kilns.

The government said Aug. 31 that the director of the Labor Ministry's Child Labor Department, Veng Heang, had started the campaign August 26 in cooperation with local authorities.

“According to the department director, any brick factory found having child labor will be severely penalised without any excuse,” the state news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse reported.

One of the authors of the Blood Bricks report, Laurie Parsons, welcomed the initiative, saying child labor was still prevalent in the industry and estimating that the number of children working in brick factories ranged “in the thousands.”

Parsons said the government had denied the issue for years and as late as last year, despite multiple reports by nongovernmental organizations, but now had started to acknowledge the issue because of increased international media attention.
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacif ... k-industry