Poor children now homeless after forced land grab on Cambodian slum

28 Jan 2009

Hundreds of poor children and their families are now homeless, after Cambodian police evicted them from their slum using teargas. Eight people were hurt in Saturday’s forced eviction of 80 families from an area of the capital, Phnom Penh.

At least two of the eight slum dwellers were seriously hurt in clashes with ‘clean-up crews’ hired to tear down the dwellings on government land they were told had been sold to private company. Witnesses said an old woman and a boy were hit by a bulldozer, while others were hurt in clashes with the workers armed with clubs and stones, reported news agency, Reuters. Police denied using excessive force to evict the group, who had fought their eviction for three years.

The vast majority of the decade-old Dey Krahorm community is now homeless. Squatters rejected the company, 7NG’s offer of $20,000 per family in compensation for the prime plot facing the Mekong River. They now face rebuilding their lives with nothing. The Phnom Penh municipality has provided less than 30 of the 152 families with shelter at a resettlement site 10 miles from the city. Earlier, most of the community rejected being resettled there because it was too far from Phnom Penh, where they work, mostly as street vendors.

At first, police would not allow journalists or human rights workers to observe the eviction, the BBC reported. Dey Krahorm was the heart of Cambodia's artistic community. Some families were not able to retrieve belongings before the demolition. Their instruments were left among the rubble.

Land grabs are a hot issue in Cambodia, where clothes factories and hotels have sprung up to expand the major textile and tourist industries. Last week, police opened fire on farmers protesting against a land grab south of Phnom Penh, wounding two of them, rights activists told Reuters. Those affected are almost exclusively people living in poverty. In 2008, at least 27 forced evictions affecting more than 20,000 people were reported in the media and by local organisations.

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Destroyed by decades of war, civil strife, political instability and economic depletion, Cambodia's infrastructure is only slowly being rebuilt. More than half its population is under the age of 18. It is one of the countries in the region most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

SOS Children has three Children’s Villages in Cambodia. First to open was one in the capital, Phnom Penh, where the slums were cleared. The village has 14 family houses and is home to 140 children.

Written by Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children