Anti-Human Trafficking and Migration
Unit Objective: Cambodian migrant workers’ rights and benefits are better protected and responded to in a timely manner from relevant stakeholders.
Key Interventions: Anti-Human Trafficking and Migration Unit (AHMU) implements 3 main activities which focus on “3P”: Prevention, Protection and Promoting the rights of migrant workers.
Prevention: Contribute to the prevention of labor exploitation and human trafficking through awareness raising, information dissemination on safe and unsafe migration to at-risk population, conduct village forum, training, and workshop, as well as advocate through media platforms including Website, Facebook, Telegram.
Protection: Provide legal consultation and other appropriate services including legal assistance, referral, file a complaint, repatriation, and reintegration to survivors of human trafficking and labor exploitation.
Promotion: Empower Cambodian migrant workers to understand, organize as networks and exercise their rights and benefits, in order to get protected and appropriate response from key stakeholders in a timely manner.
There are no less than 3 million Cambodian migrant workers - documented and undocumented - currently working abroad in Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and other countries. The majority of Cambodian migrant workers work in 3D (“Difficult, Dirty, and Dangerous”) jobs.
Migration for work is an individual’s right and choice without force or threat which allows them to find work, increase remittances, and develop skills. But in reality, the majority of Cambodian migrant workers have been left with leave no options but to go abroad due to lack of decent jobs, low incomes in the home country, debt, and the lack of, or inability to access markets to sell their products, etc. These factors push many Cambodians to migrate through irregular channels such as brokers, and relatives rather than under government MOUs as they need to find work and to support their livelihoods and repay debts.
According to the study that CENTRAL has conducted with many migrant workers found that workers who go through the MOU process need to pay an extensive fee between 450 to 650 USD to cover documents such as passport, work visa, work permit, medical examination and employment fees to private recruitment agencies. Migrant workers also shared that the process is complicated and time consuming as they need to travel back and forth, which is also costly. Many migrant workers are unable to afford the fee, thus they borrow from relatives, take private bank or microfinance institution loans. The alternative of border-crossing through unofficial means potentially increases workers’, especially women migrants and children, vulnerability to being cheated by brokers, to labor exploitation, labor rights violations and human trafficking.
Our Other Programmes
Organizing Unit
Organizing Unit is tasked with training independent labor activists, union leaders, and Cambodian working people in Cambodian labor law and the fundamental rights they are legally entitled to. Their overall strategic goal is to contribute to stronger
Protection Unit
Despite the development and growth of the labor sector in Cambodia, it is still characterized by low wages for workers compared to other countries in the region. The $204 minimum wage demonstrates the chronic problem of unparalleled minimum wages and further
Media ICT Unit
Unit Objective: The objective of this unit is to increase acknowledgement of labor, migration and human rights issues and the need for reform locally and internationally. Key Interventions: Promote Worker’s Messages and Voices to duty bearers by producing media talk shows, online campaigns, educational materials and other digital tools for public education. Capacity development on digital security training provided to cross-cutting workers and network on digital security and citizen journalism as well as builds solidarity networks to support and facilitate communication. The situation of freedom of expression in Cambodia is concerning. Lack of freedom of information and expression limits the capacity and means of citizens to raise their voices widely to duty bearers and stakeholders. The issues around the media, information, and the digital landscape in Cambodia have a multifaceted impact on the population, especially workers and civil society actors. With the rapid acceleration of global digital transformation and innovation, the number of Facebook users in Cambodia has risen to 13 863 800 users in May 2024, accounting for 77.3% of the entire population. Social media users now access news primarily via Facebook, the most popular platform in Cambodia. Most workers in Cambodia and abroad use it for daily communication. One of the main challenges facing Cambodian workers is digital literacy. Many pay an agent to set up their social media and email accounts. They lack the knowledge to secure their online communications and personal information, and to ward against online scams, leading to frequent loss of social media accounts and exposure to online threats. Additionally, workers often lack the courage to report violations when employers breach labor laws; they are uncertain about how to document and publicize such incidents. Therefore, they require more training on reporting procedures and how to capture quality photos and videos. The use of ICT here is invaluable, enabling them to promptly seek intervention with proper evidence to fall back on. Since 2017, CENTRAL has trained thousands of union leaders, key workers, grassroots community, and youth (~60% female) on ICT/digital security training, and citizen journalism skills. This training has been crucial in protecting unions, workers and their networks online.