State enacts ban on private recruitment to Korea

Wednesday, 22 December 2010
By Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
Phnom Penh Post

Private companies will be prohibited from recruiting Cambodian labour for work in South Korea from January 1, in a bid to prevent any potential human trafficking and exploitation that might discourage others from seeking work there.

Hou Vudthy, deputy general director at the Ministry of Labour, said South Korea paid some of the highest migrant labour wages in the region, and that – after a spate of recent trafficking and abuse cases involving migrant workers in Malaysia and Thailand – the government wanted to ensure the country remains a safe option for Cambodian workers.

“The reason why we are just focusing on only the South Korean working opportunities is because we think South Korea’s working conditions and jobs market are very good for our Cambodian workers,” he said. Hou Vudthy added that salaries for workers in South Korea were also “very high” compared with other overseas destinations favoured by Cambodians.

“We would like to encourage more people to go,” he said.

Going forward, the ministry itself will work with selected private companies to place Cambodian migrants in jobs in South Korea, he said, but the ministry will be the only agency authorised to recruit workers.

“We will do our own workers’ recruitments and after that we will be working with our local or private company partners,” he said.

The move came following a spate of cases involving the exploitation, abuse or trafficking of Cambodian migrant workers in other countries in the region, Hou Vudthy said.

“So far, we have observed that there were many problems ... relating to the recruitment of our Cambodian people for work overseas,” he said.

“To prevent these things from happening again in the future, the Government of Cambodia will not authorise the private companies to select our Cambodian workers for work in South Korea anymore.”

He said the ministry hoped the new regulation would make it easier for officials to monitor and protect migrant workers once they are abroad. “We expect that if we can do it like this, we will then be able to better control our workers’ safety and security, as well as their incomes,” he said....read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.