Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand attacked amid border tensions

Detailed summary

As border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia erupted to five days of fighting before a ceasefire was declared, reports of Cambodian migrant workers being beaten by Thai gangs…

As border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia erupted to five days of fighting before a ceasefire was declared, reports of Cambodian migrant workers being beaten by Thai gangs were on the rise.

Thai government and police officials have both issued public statements condemning the attacks on Cambodian migrant workers.

RFA Khmer service’s Poly Sam speaks with Bangkok-based rights and labor activist Phil Robertson of Asia Human Rights Labour Advocates (AHRLA) about what’s being done.

Quite a few Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have been discriminated against since the war broke out on July 24th. A Cambodian NGO that works in Thailand documented around 16 cases that Thai youth gangs have been beating up Cambodian migrant workers.

And I’m wondering, in your opinion, why would a country like Thailand allow this kind of violence to happen to migrant workers?

Well, I will say a couple of things on this. First, the Thai government and the Thai police have actually issued statements saying that this should not happen. So we had the police on Friday, saying very clearly, no attacks should happen against migrant workers and that anybody who did this would face the full force of law.

We also saw the deputy government spokesperson make a similar statement, again, saying that the police were going to patrol and trying to protect migrants in areas where there are a significant number of Cambodian migrants. But the big problem in Thailand is that there is a yawning gap between what officials say and what the law says and what actually happens on the ground.

And as you said, there were these youth attacks. I’ve seen some of the videos that were quite horrific, with gangs of Thai youths attacking Cambodian migrant workers who had nothing to do with what is going on between the two countries. I mean, those migrant workers are simply here trying to make a living, and send money back to their families.

And those attacks have caused a great deal of fear in the Cambodian migrant…

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