To whom it may concerned,
We came across a blog on your website (khmerization.blogspot.com) regarding "Malaysia Embassy saved Cambodian maid alerted by Khmerization's article", posted on 23 March 2011. We would like to bring your attention to a recent death of a Cambodia maid which we suspected the actual cause of death is due to the constant physical and mental tortures by her employer.
According to the local neighbourhood, they do constantly witness the deceased being beaten up and abused and had many times sought help from other maids in the neighbourhood. A day before her death, she passed down a message saying that if she really pass away without any valid reason, please inform her uncle back in Cambodia. What even provoking is that when we checked with the local police station, the feedback we get from the police officer is they had concluded the cause of death was due to natural causes i.e lungs infection. Rumors had been circulating around here saying that bribe has been given to the local police station officer to cover up the case as the employer is a well known and wealthy local businessman.
Not much personal details about this Cambodian maid we could provide to you. What we know is her name is KHOR PHAIK (Malaysian authority said the girl's name is Choy Phich, not Khor Phaik), about 15 years of age, her maid agent company name in Cambodia is TSE. She was found dead on 17th of July 2011 in the morning, lying at the back door of her employer's residence at No.3 Lorong Aman 7 Taman Robina 13050 Teluk Air Tawar Butterworth Penang Malaysia, by her employer. No further news were heard since her death.
As a sympathetic local community, this is what we can do the most to help this young pity Cambodian maid to seek for justice for her death. We sincerely hope some action could taken from your side to investigate further into this case.
Thank you!
Anonymous
---------------------We came across a blog on your website (khmerization.blogspot.com) regarding "Malaysia Embassy saved Cambodian maid alerted by Khmerization's article", posted on 23 March 2011. We would like to bring your attention to a recent death of a Cambodia maid which we suspected the actual cause of death is due to the constant physical and mental tortures by her employer.
According to the local neighbourhood, they do constantly witness the deceased being beaten up and abused and had many times sought help from other maids in the neighbourhood. A day before her death, she passed down a message saying that if she really pass away without any valid reason, please inform her uncle back in Cambodia. What even provoking is that when we checked with the local police station, the feedback we get from the police officer is they had concluded the cause of death was due to natural causes i.e lungs infection. Rumors had been circulating around here saying that bribe has been given to the local police station officer to cover up the case as the employer is a well known and wealthy local businessman.
Not much personal details about this Cambodian maid we could provide to you. What we know is her name is KHOR PHAIK (Malaysian authority said the girl's name is Choy Phich, not Khor Phaik), about 15 years of age, her maid agent company name in Cambodia is TSE. She was found dead on 17th of July 2011 in the morning, lying at the back door of her employer's residence at No.3 Lorong Aman 7 Taman Robina 13050 Teluk Air Tawar Butterworth Penang Malaysia, by her employer. No further news were heard since her death.
As a sympathetic local community, this is what we can do the most to help this young pity Cambodian maid to seek for justice for her death. We sincerely hope some action could taken from your side to investigate further into this case.
Thank you!
Anonymous
Khmerization's Note's: Khmerization appeals to all readers to please write to the Malaysian Embassy in Cambodia (malppenh@kln.gov.my), the Kuala Lumpur Police (rmp@rmp.gov.my) as well as the Cambodian Embassy in Malaysia at (camemb.mys@mfa.gov.kh) to ask them to investigate the girl's death. This is a very sad and tragic ending for this young maid and her death must not be allowed to be forgotten. Thanks.
Response: Khmerization sent this report to more than 400 people, including the Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the Royal Malaysian Police. And today, 23rd July, we received a short reply from the Royal Malaysian Police (rmp@rmp.gov.my) that they will take further action on this case. Here is the email from the Royal Malaysian Police:
"Terima kasih di atas e-mel anda. Tindakan susulan akan diambil dengan segera. Terima kasih.
Pegawai Perhubungan Awam
Cawangan perhubungan Awam
Polis Diraja Malaysia
(Thank you for your email. Further action will be taken as soon as possible.) Thank you.
Public Relation Officer
Public Relations Branch
Royal Malaysia Police".
10 comments:
This is sad. Why 15 years old worked as maid? The employer should be the main suspect in this case.
Khmerization,
Thank you so much for your excellent work not only for bringing us news, but also, and more importantly, for alerting the Malaysian embassy to act rapidly against possible danger to a Cambodian maid and as a result a precious Cambodian life was safe.
We all know that because of economic difficulty they and their families are facing, many poor and young Cambodians including many women are seeking employments outside the country and may not receive all the protection from the Cambodian embassy, government and the host country for whatever reason.
Since you know the cases very well and also a good writer, may I suggest that you write a short letter, which everyone who wants to, can copy and put their name at the end of the email and use it as their own. They certainly can add whatever they want to the letter.
Let us not debate and blame the Cambodian and Malaysian embassies and authorities on this case. The culprit needs to be brought to justice. Let us work with what we have the imperfect Cambodian government and any agencies who can help achieve the ultimate goal of bringing the culprit to justice so that it can clearly serve to warn potentially bad employers to think twice before committing atrocity and torture on their Cambodian employees.
Perhaps somebody who knows about other international agencies can kindly list their names and emails so that we can send them the same emails to alert them about such abuses that are taking place.
So for once, let us all be united and not fighting each other on Cambodian politics in this one article comment site and focus our energy on doing what Khmerization has requested.
Once again, let us do what we can do to help our poor brothers and sisters who are victims of this heinous crimes. Helping Cambodia begins with the help of her poor children.
Anet Khmer
This case here is a direct result of the autocratic regime Hun Sen and his get rich soon cronies. The impact and the carelessness of Hun's policy COUNTRY FOR SELL have already caused hundred of thousand people to face poverty,some have got no choice but leave the country to be maids and labourers in even hostiled country like Thailand,where employment law and human right are not protected for those people. This policy is going to hit harder in the near future and possibly a permanent unrecoverable from forcing more millions of Cambodian people to face extreme poverty as population is growing and unprepared investment in education and technology for the future.
Poor girl she was so young to face such as life. I wish we all could feel her pain,her hard-ship and her sorrow. How much she missed her home,friends and family.She was lonely in a far away country for fainted hope.
She was a part of our blood a part of our love and apart of our life,but the nation just simply abandon her.She was only 15 years old. what's sort of country we have!
Nation is a family and a family is a bout love and care.If we don't have all of this qualities,we are simply a nation without soul.
A true leader is a true fatherhood of man.
True Khmer
i dont understand why do they keep on going there when there have been several cases of abuse in the past 6 months and maybe earlier. Why! Why! Why! that is the question. The answer is easy Don't go! I understand poverty and money to support the family but it's not worth it. It's really not worth it!! Shut down the agency, hit them with a fine and put the ring leaders in jail. The question again is Why? Are we so hard headed to listen to other people with similiar experiences?? That is the question!!
This is one of many tragic cases of Cambodian maids working overseas, particularly in Malaysia. The Cambodian and Malaysian authorities must thoroughly investigate the girl's death and punish her employer if he is found to have committed her murder or has abused her as accused by neighbors who claimed to have witnessed the beatings and tortures. I sure will write to these authorities to urge them to investigate. May her soul rest in peace.
9:31 AM
Don't be so naive! From the tone of your article, it seemed that you have not been in their positions, so you will NOT understand what make them decide to do what they did. DON'T blame them for working to improve their livelihood.
Sometimes, the necessity and needs dictates that they take more risk.
Even though it is not to the same extent, but it is similar to the case of the Khmer refugees and boat people in the late 70s and early 80s. Their journey to the refugee camps are full of risk, i.e. captured and killed by the Khmer Rough, stepping on landmines, and even if they managed to reach the refugee camp, they still faces the risk of mistreatment by the barbaric Thai black clad rangers.
Yet, millions of Khmer people including your parents, decided that taking the risk is far better than to endure and face the current reality. For this reason, you now have the luxury that these young maids do not have!
Why people questioning why she was there to do the maid work? What dont you understand? This is call survival. If she has something better, do you think she risk her life to make a few dollars? Do you think those loggers risking their lives if there is good jobs? Do you think those girl like all of those physical abuse as a maid, they treated them like slave? The answer is too obviouse, it is economic hardship that is why we have child labor and other issues.
23 July 2011 10:34 AM,
Right on! You hit the nail right there on the head!
Love it!
Dear all,
Don't blame the dead maid or other maids working overseas. If they have other means to make a living in Cambodia, they would not risk their life working overseas. They are poor and there is no job in Cambodia in which to make a living. The blame should be directed at the governments of both countries and the job agencies for not providing them with sufficient protection, like where to seek/ask for help or protection when they have troubles. What we all can do now is to write to the contacts provided in this article to push for some sort of answer and to seek justice for this poor girl. It is good to know that the Malaysian police is responding positively to the article. Let's hope other authorities will take up the case to speed up the investigation and justice.
Thank you the anonymous author for your concern.
Human-trafficking?
The first people who are answerable for this needless tragedy are the Cambodian authorities themselves who allowed a girl of fifteen years of age to work as maid in another country.
Isn't there any age limit set on people seeking employment abroad? What procedures are in place to ensure these Cambodian workers overseas are better protected from this kind of abuse?
Kouprey
Post a Comment