James Ricketson has been agitating for the release of Rosa and Chita, two girls who have been residents of She Rescue Home for over five years.
An Australian filmmaker has been given a two-year suspended jail sentence by a Cambodian court for threatening to defame a girls refuge in Phnom Penh.
The She Rescue Home is run by the Brisbane-based Pentecostal church Citipointe. Leigh Ramsey, a senior Pastor with the church, asked the Cambodian prosecutor to charge James Ricketson with blackmail after he threatened to publish email correspondence with Citipointe on his blog.
The AFI award-winning filmmaker has been agitating for the release of Rosa and Chita, two girls who have been residents of She Rescue Home for more than five years.
The refuge was established to protect Cambodian girls who have been abused, trafficked or are at risk of trafficking, but Ricketson argues the two girls do not fit any of these categories and are being held against the will of their parents.
Ricketson first met the girls' mother Chanti when he was making a film about the trafficking of children in Cambodia in the mid-1990s. He has been documenting her life since then.
In 2008, Chanti was struggling to look after her two young daughters, then aged three and six. The church asked her if she wanted the home to take her children in.
At first, Chanti was happy with the arrangement, but after a few months she wanted her two daughters back.
Chanti took matters into her own hands, entering the home and spiriting her children away.
"I took them across the river to hide them and they called the police and called the lawyer and the newspaper, and said 'next time don't do it again'," she said.
Chanti claims that after she tried to take her children back, her visitation rights were cut back to two hours a month.
Chanti grew up on the streets of Phnom Penh and is illiterate. When Citipointe provided her with a contract that would allow them to take her children, she signed it with a thumbprint.
After Ricketson challenged the validity of the contract, the home claimed they had a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Cambodian government that gave them the legal right to keep the children.
Citipointe would not provide a copy of the MOU to Lateline.
Ricketson asked Julie Bishop to intervene
Ricketson says he has asked the last four foreign ministers, including current Minister Julie Bishop, if they could get a copy of the MOU.
"I've asked them 'please just ask the church to produce the document'," he said.
"If they produce the document and the document says yes, the church has a legal right to remove the kids in July 2008 and to retain them against the express wishes of the parents beyond, say, November, then I'm clearly wrong."
The church maintains it has a right to keep the children, despite the wishes of the parents.
In an email, Pastor Brian Mulheran stated: "The ABC is well aware of the MoSAVY (ministry of social affairs, veterans and youth) undersecretary of state (Khuon) Ranin's affirmation that the home has always had all the girls legally within our care, from his statements in an article in the Phnom Penh Post."
Australian who ran Cambodian orphanage says there's no substitute for family
But Tara Winkler from the Cambodian Children's Trust says local law states a parent should be able to take their children back whenever they like.
"The royal government of Cambodia's current policy on the alternative care for children states that the parental authority of a child who has been entrusted to an orphanage remains with the child's parents or guardian, unless it has been revoked by the court," she said.
Ms Winkler, who in 2011 was named the NSW Young Australian of the Year for her work running a Cambodian orphanage, believes charities need to stop separating children from their families, no matter how poor they are.
"The best place for a child is always with the family. Even if an orphanage is trying to do good things for the kids, it's no substitute for family," she said.
Why can't I have my children back, mother asks
Chanti says she can now afford to look after her children and wants them back.
"I was told if I was poor I could not get my children back. Now we have enough money to look after them, why can't I ask for my children back? Why won't they give them to me?" she said.
Citipointe says it has reintegrated 29 children back into Cambodian families since 2009 and hopes to reunite Chanti with her daughters soon.
Citipointe turned down Lateline's requests for an interview.
In a statement, Pastor Mulheran said: "It is a sad day when the church would need to take a person to court in order to have girls within our care safely reintegrated back with their family. However, with no further options it was necessary for us to take legal action against Mr Ricketson to hopefully provide this pathway. Something we, the mother of the girls and ironically, Mr Ricketson, purports to claim."
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