The wrenching tales of three Cambodian fishermen trafficked abroad played out on screen last night as a documentary about the issue was shown.
Screened at German cultural centre Meta House, Where is the Horizon? tells how the men were promised jobs by Giant Ocean International Fishery but ended up working in slavelike conditions.
The film was produced by Hem Vanna, director of My Name is UNTAC, and Australia and USAID via Winrock International’s anti-trafficking program.
Each year, the organisation says, hundreds of Cambodians are shipped across the globe to labour on fishing vessels.
Trapped on board, they are forced to work long hours and suffer physical and sexual abuse.
“Many never come back; some commit suicide and the lucky few escape,” Vanna said.
His documentary follows the stories of three men who voluntarily signed up with the now-defunct recruitment agency Giant Ocean International, believing they would be sent to work in Japan.
They were instead shipped to South Africa, Senegal and Fiji, where they worked for little or no pay before managing to escape.
One of the victims featured in the film, Bun Then, applied for a position that was advertised as consisting of a three-year contract with pay of $130 per month and bonuses ranging between $500 and $2,000.
Arriving in the Ivory Coast, he was forced to work a minimum of 15 hours a day and often 48 hours without a break.
He was paid $20 a month in cash before escaping.
On April 29, Phnom Penh Municipal Court found six employees of Giant Ocean International guilty of trafficking, sentencing them to 10 years' imprisonment and ordering them to pay the victims compensation of withheld wages and damages.
But, due to an appeal by the agency, the victims are still waiting to see any money.
Legal Support of Children and Women (LSCW) worked with 87 of 97 trafficking victims. Mom Sokchar, legal and safe migration program manager at LSCW, said that the biggest problem for the families is a lack of compensation – though some have found work or support.
“They try to survive by themselves, but at the same time some of the people have already received support from NGOs,” he said.
Camille Dumont, communications manager at Winrock International, said that the film was created as part of the group’s counter-trafficking program.
The project aims to “improve the ability and readiness of Cambodian institutions to combat all forms of human trafficking through prevention” as well as to build “government capacity to prosecute traffickers”.
“The case does not only involve the one who has been arrested,” Sokchar explained. “We have to look at the whole process from the top.”
Cambodia's aviation authority yesterday approved operations for the first of three Chinese market-focused airlines, all of which are expected to take to the skies by the end of the year.
The State Secretariat of Civil Aviation granted an Airline Operations Certificate (AOC) to Apsara International Air (AIA) – owned jointly by private Chinese and Cambodian investors – after a more than yearlong application process.
“Safety is our most serious concern, and we must maintain our commitment to the safe operations of new airlines in Cambodia,” Chea Aun, undersecretary of state for the SSCA, said during the approval ceremony, which ended with a champagne toast.
AIA will initially commence domestic flight operations between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap with a single Airbus A320, according to CEO Zhang Xiao Peng. However, the Chinese-backed firm has ambitious expansion plans.
“We’ll start domestic flights around September 20,” Peng said. “Beginning next year we will start flights from Cambodia to China. In 2015 we will fly from Cambodia to 25 cities in China. Then in 2016 and 2017 we will expand our destinations to Japan and Korea and by the year 2019, we estimate we will have up to 50 aircraft.”
Yesterday’s SSCA approval of AIA is only the beginning, according to Mok Sam Ol, chief flight operations inspector at the SSCA, who confirmed that two more approvals would be made by December.
“[B]oth Bassaka Air and Bayon Airlines will be approved by the end of the year also,” Sam Ol said.
“[B]oth Bassaka Air and Bayon Airlines will be approved by the end of the year also,” Sam Ol said.
Bassaka Air, a startup that has partnered with travel agency China International Travel Services, aims to commence flights from Phnom Penh to China with two Airbus A320s as early as this month.
Meanwhile, Cambodia Bayon Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of local company Bayon Holdings, has received an undisclosed investment from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China to launch a new Cambodian carrier.
Like Apsara, Bayon plans to first commence domestic flight operations – by December with two Xian Aircraft Industry Company MA60 aircraft – before expanding its fleet and destinations to China.
Local stock brokerage company Sonatra Securities has announced it will completely dilute its books and put a halt on all business activities from October 1.In a press release posted on Sonatra’s website last week, the firm stated without an explanation that it was suspending all operations for 12 months and that all securities will be returned to investors.“Therefore Sonatra Securities PLC will stop receiving orders from clients, close client accounts and client money accounts, and give back clients the securities, funds and other properties by September 29, 2014.”The company stated that it will remain contactable for clients for up to two-weeks after all business activities and accounts have been closed.
While no precise reasons have been provided for Sonatra’s suspension of operations, Sok Dara, deputy director-general of Securities and Exchange Commission Cambodia (SECC), told the Post the securities firm intended to use the 12-month hiatus to undertake a “complete restructuring”.Dara was confident that Sonatra’s decision would not negatively affect the Cambodian Stock Exchange.“The company’s suspension, or stop operation, has so far not put any unforeseen pressure or had a negative affect on the market and listed stocks,” he said.Soleil Lamun, deputy director of market operations department of Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX), rallied Dara’s confidence saying Sonatra’s decision would not hamper investor sentiment in the market.“Sonatra’s clients also have accounts in other securities firms. So without Sonatra they will keep trading using accounts in other securities,” he explained.Sonatra’s announcement marks the second securities outfit to shut down its operations in the past 18 months after Sacombank Securities Cambodia – a subsidiary of the Vietnamese financial institution Sacombank – completely dissolved its client base and business operations in March last year.Svay Hay, president and CEO of Acleda Securities said his firm had received numerous requests for stock broking services since Sonatra made the announcement earlier this month.“Investors are not worried because they can instead use services from our company or others when securities firms decide to install a suspension plan,” Hay said.Sonatra Securities could not be reached for comment.