Thursday, 30 August 2012
By Sen David
Phnom Penh Post
A
group of five fishermen who had endured more than a year in forced
labour on a Thai fishing vessel returned to an emotional reunion with
their families in Phnom Penh last night.
In a scene that has
become all too familiar over the past year, a group of five fishermen
who had endured more than a year in forced labour on a Thai fishing
vessel returned to an emotional reunion with their families in Phnom
Penh last night.
The men flew into the capital’s international airport from Indonesia, where the boat they worked on was found illegally fishing.
Sim
Yeng, 32, from Kandal province, said he had gone to Thailand believing
that a broker in his village had found him work at a high salary for one
year.
Instead, he ended up working for nothing on a fishing boat.
“It was a very difficult job on the boat. They gave us no time to rest, even though we worked day and night,” Yeng said.
“I did not get a salary, so I decided to escape. I came back home to see my family.”
Not
knowing Yeng’s whereabouts had caused his family much anxiety, said his
sister Sim Ngim, who greeted him at the airport. “I missed my brother
so much. My family worried about him so much because he was not safe
abroad – but now he’s home.”
Rouen Nam, 24, from Siem Reap province, said that once aboard the fishing vessel, he had been treated as a slave.
“They
beat us if we could not complete the work they wanted . . . I swore
never to go back for a job abroad. It is my life,” Nam said.
The
men are the most recent group of slave labourers to be repatriated after
13 fishermen were rescued from South Africa earlier this month and in
July.
“They were mistreated by a boat owner for more than a year
and a month in South Africa,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Kuy
Kong said in a statement.
Lim Mony, from the rights group Adhoc,
said Cambodian fishermen continued to be lured by brokers to work in
Thailand and other countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and South
Africa.
According to the Ministry of Interior, 12,000 Cambodian workers were repatriated from abroad in 2011.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sen David at david.sen@phnompenhpost.com
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