FILE - Cambodian migrant workers carry their belongings as they walk to cross the border at Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaew, June 15, 2014.

By Sun Narin
December 9, 2018

Girls’ Deaths Alert Cambodia to Human Cost of Economic Migration

"They couldn’t find work anywhere nearby. They owned almost nothing, not even the plot of land their palm-thatched hut was built on. They owed a microfinance institution $250, a debt whose principal never seemed to shrink, no matter how much of their spare cash they forked over to the bank. They were desperate to meet the deadline for repayment at the end of the year."

"But the debt was not getting smaller, despite the remittances. All Ol Thida could do for income was make baskets and catch fire ants to sell at the local market. Both of these brought paltry sums. She did not have the sewing skills to work at a garment factory. So she, too, decided to migrate. She left for Phnom Penh in October to look for a job as a waitress."

"She arranged for the girls to sleep at her sister’s nearby home. She would call them every day on her sister’s phone, and Leakhena would cook meals for Meta in the family’s own hut. It was a risk, but seemed like the best option in a life of bad options."

"The search party returned to the house and opened a box in the hut that was used to store clothes. Inside were the bodies of Leakhena and Meta. The older child had been raped and strangled; the younger had been beaten."

"Stories like this are becoming more common in Cambodia, as migration from rural areas to Phnom Penh and Thailand is increasing rapidly, said Chhan Sokunthea, the head of the children’s rights unit at local rights group Adhoc."

"This demographic shift means that some villages are primarily populated by children, the elderly, and men who are unemployable because they use drugs or struggle with mental illness. But children are still expected to do traditional forms of labor, such as collecting forest products and herding cows, that bring them into remote parts of the countryside."

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