According to the Sihanoukville police, a Vietnamese woman, who was prevented from leaving her job by her employers, was not actually detained by force. The case is therefore, in their opinion, a private dispute over working conditions between the woman and the company.


Cambodia News (Preah Sihanouk): On 15 September 2022, the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Administration announced the results of investigations into a video clip that a Vietnamese woman (who spoke in Khmer) posted on social media, complaining that she had been detained to work for a company in Sihanoukville.
According to the report on the investigation results the police raided the location where the woman was allegedly detained on 29 August 2022, at 13:00hrs. With the cooperation of the owner of the location, the police found the Vietnamese woman and brought her and a male Chinese manager to the Sihanoukville Provincial Police for interrogation.

The Woman's Story
The woman had worked for 3 companies in Sihanoukville, and she had no problem with the first two, but the third company applied harsh working conditions in which she had to work between 14 to 15 hours a day. When she first started working for the company, she was told that she had to work for six months before she could apply for leave. After 3 months, the company made her sign a new contract in writing with the company for another 6 months, causing her dissatisfaction.

The Vietnamese woman then received news that her mother was ill, and told the company that she would like to resign and go home. However, the company refused to let her go, so she called the authorities for help on social media, saying she was detained against her will.
However, she later confessed that her video showing a Chinese man menacing hervwith a small weapon in his hand was untrue, and that she had made the video clip because she was scared and worried, but the company did not actually physically restrain her or beat her.


The real reason that the woman posted the video, was because she wanted the authorities to get her out of the company as soon as possible, because she wanted to return to her home country to see her sick mother.
The Sihanoukville provincial administration asks the media and social media users to stop disseminating and sharing this misinformation and other untrue stories which confuse the public.

However, Vietnamese officials say they are rescuing hundreds of Vietnamese citizens who are detained and working in slave conditions in compounds in Sihanoukville.

September 16, 2022
Vietnam’s envoy in Cambodia says calls for help come day and night from people sold into slavery
Khmer Times
The sheer number of people traveling from Vietnam to Cambodia’s Sihanoukville and sold into modern slavery is a major challenge to rescue efforts.

Since the beginning of this year the Vietnamese consulate in Sihanoukville has collaborated with Cambodian authorities to carry out 50-60 searches and rescued over 600 people from forced labor.

Since last year over 800 Vietnamese have been rescued from Preah Sihanouk Province alone.

But consul general Vu Ngoc Ly says the actual number of Vietnamese victims of illegal labor gangs in Cambodia is much bigger, and rescue efforts face several challenges.

The biggest is the sheer number of people coming from Vietnam to Cambodia, resulting in large numbers of victims, and every day the consulate receives dozens of requests for rescue, he says.

“Recently calls have been coming day and night and constantly. We don’t dare turn off our phones.”

In April the consulate received calls for help from some Vietnamese who said they were being held as forced laborers, he says.

“The consulate cooperated with the local police and rescued 270 workers trapped in the facility. All of them were Vietnamese, but only around 50 of them had papers, while the rest had traveled to Cambodia illegally.”

He says all have returned safely to Vietnam.
In full: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501151619/ ... o-slavery/