Introduction
After a long and tiring history of natural turmoil, genocide, and civil war, Cambodia now faces new challenges. A major crime shackling the international image of Cambodia is human trafficking. Human trafficking in Cambodia is consistently on the rise, the U.S. State Department has classified the nation as a Tier 3 Trafficking blacklist country due to its limited efforts to combat trafficking (US Department of State, 2022).
Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked into sexual exploitation and forced labour. All of Cambodia’s 25 provinces are sources of human trafficking and exploitation of women, men, and children. According to World Vision Australia (2009), Cambodia is a source country for human trafficking, sending several women and children to Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, and Taiwan destined for brothels, factories, or domestic labour. Cambodian men are trafficked primarily to Thailand for forced labour in the construction, agriculture, and fishing industries. A significant number of Cambodian children are trafficked to Vietnam and Thailand for the purpose of forced begging. Moreover, as a destination country, people are also trafficked into Cambodia from surrounding countries. The primary victims are Vietnamese women and girls, who constitute the second-largest group of sex workers in Cambodia. Additionally, there have been considerable instances of internal trafficking, primarily for the purposes of sexual exploitation, to Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Koh Kong, and Siem Reap. Though some victims are trafficked by strangers, many are trafficked by someone they know, suggesting that family and community members play a major role in trafficking.
According to the Global Slavery Index (2016), most human trafficking incidents in Cambodia materialise as forced marriages, forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation, forced begging, and orphanage tourism (Anderson, 2022). Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated human trafficking in Cambodia due to the increasing vulnerability of populations as a consequence of rising poverty levels and widespread unemployment (UNICEF, 2021).
Cambodia’s role in combating this crime
Concerted efforts by the Cambodian government, UN agencies, and NGOs have done much to raise awareness of the trafficking issue, provide recovery services to victims, and step-up action to arrest traffickers.
National and regional laws
In 2000, Cambodia signed a bilateral agreement with Thailand to combat illicit trafficking as well as cross-border smuggling (Unesco, 2000). This agreement touched on issues such as cross-border cooperation to combat illegal trafficking, but only covered cultural property. More recently in 2008, Cambodia introduced a national Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, which has the objective of protecting “the rights and dignity of human beings (…) improve the health and welfare of citizens” (Article 1). The penalties for human trafficking are between seven and fifteen years for adult victims and fifteen to twenty years for child victims, although NGOs report that the government often reduces these sentences, favoring fines (UNICEF official translation, 2008).
International Laws
On an international level, Cambodia is signatory to the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT), a process between six Greater Mekong Subregion countries (China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar) signed in 2004. The initiative created task forces to oversee activities as well as an action plan and operational framework. The main eight activities of the action plan are: training and capacity building, national plans of action, multi-sectoral partnerships, management, legal frameworks and law enforcement, victim identification and protection, preventive measures, and cooperation with the tourism sector. Cambodia also signed the International Labour Organisation Agreement on Guidelines for Practices and Cooperation between the Relevant Government Institutions and Victim Support Agencies in Cases of Human Trafficking, therefore recognizing the labour dimensions of human trafficking (ILO, 2007).
Cambodia against Child Trafficking (Cambodia ACTs)
Recent years have also seen increased efforts to protect children from child sex offenders. In 2001, a coalition of 16 organisations, Cambodia against Child Trafficking (Cambodia ACTs), came into existence which serves 22 provinces and municipalities to ensure all Cambodian children live a life free from trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. It offers survivors a safe place to share their stories anonymously, as it believes silence only aids in the problem of human trafficking. ACTs also raises awareness of human trafficking and educate and help children who are at risk, all while strengthening Cambodian laws to stop human trafficking through their 4P Strategy to combat child trafficking: prevention, prosecution, provision, and promotion. The coalition aids in the prosecution of perpetrators as well and seeks justice for victims.
Cambodia failing to combat Trafficking
Economic instability
Despite the recent economic boom in the past few years, Cambodia remains one of the poorest countries in Asia, and living standards remain low. For the poor, education, vocational training, and employment opportunities are insufficient to provide the income to meet minimum needs. This economic strain and lack of opportunities make rural-to-urban and cross-border migration by vulnerable families and individuals common for survival and sustainability. In the process, many become victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, begging, or forced marriage. According to the Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey for 2019/20, at the newly defined national poverty line of $2.70 per person per day, 18% of the population faces poverty. Without enough money to provide for themselves and their families, Cambodians are at increased risk of trafficking lures and often look to child labour to make ends meet. Sometimes, families unknowingly send their children to work in exploitative and unsafe environments to make extra money (The World Bank, 2022). Other factors such as gender-based discrimination, physical and sexual violence, family dysfunction, the impact of HIV/AIDS, and indebtedness also increase vulnerabilities to trafficking.
Gender-based discrimination
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (‘Palermo Protocol’) highlights how women and children are disproportionately affected by human trafficking, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also reporting that 49 percent of global trafficking victims are women, 23 percent are girls, 21 percent are men and seven percent are boys (2008). This can be explained by the rise of sex trafficking but also by the unequal opportunities women face in the workplace in Cambodia, disproportionately exposing them to economic vulnerability and social exclusion. It is also important to note that victims who do manage to escape sexual trafficking are more likely to face social exclusion when they return home due to their involvement in prostitution.
LGBTQ discrimination
Studies also show that LGBTQ people in Cambodia are disproportionately exposed to the risk of human trafficking due to the fact that they are already more at risk of being socially excluded both from the workplace and from society as a whole (Nhov, 2021). Although Cambodian law does not explicitly condemn homosexuality, there is no national legislation to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination, which means that LGBTQ individuals are more likely to leave their hometowns, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to human trafficking. They are therefore more vulnerable as human traffickers can lure them with promises of employment in the fishing or agricultural industries, for example.
Current situation – Cambodia on Trafficking blacklist (tier 3)
Recently, United States government report downgraded Cambodia to Tier 3 on the ranking system based on the country’s compliance with standards of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (2000). Tier 3 refers to: “Countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so”. The US report states that Cambodia failed to maintain a centralised record of investigations and judicial proceedings and did not take appropriate action against suspected or convicted traffickers (US Department of State, 2022) The report highlighted high levels of corruption as a factor that limited progress, giving the following example: “Some police reportedly protected sex trafficking establishments in exchange for monthly payments from the business owners or sexual favors from the victims.” It also stated that the anti-trafficking training given to local police forces was insufficient, particularly in rural areas where police forces were not given training in basic law enforcement techniques (US Department of State, 2022).
Conclusion
In the light of aforementioned data and causes of trafficking in Cambodia, this report presents some recommendations to help combat this crime. Government authorities should effectively implement anti-trafficking legislation and policies that have been developed in recent years. This includes the Anti-Human Trafficking Law, COMMIT, and bilateral agreements with Thailand and Cambodia. Moreover, there’s a need to implement a system for monitoring, collecting, and reporting data on anti-trafficking prosecution and victim protection efforts and disseminate data among the relevant government agencies in a manner that protects victims’ identities and privacy. Bilateral cooperation between Cambodia and its neighbors, namely Thailand and Vietnam, should be strengthened to allow for safe and swift repatriation of trafficking victims. Trafficking prevention programmes need to address the root causes that render individuals vulnerable to trafficking, so that offers by traffickers become less attractive. Poverty is not necessarily the root cause of all trafficking, but it is still a major vulnerability factor. Social and economic development for the poor should be continued and strengthened, targeting especially the 85 percent of the population in rural areas.
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