Bringing Justice to Cambodian Workers
One local leader is helping migrants and human trafficking survivors realize their rights
Tola Mouen — a labor rights activist from Cambodia — is a frequent target of recriminations meant to undermine his efforts to provide legal aid to victims of trafficking.
Since 2003, when he joined the labor movement as an organizer and project manager, he has experienced threats of all forms — including a deliberate accident in which a car crashed in front of him, causing him to fall off his motorbike. It took him two weeks to recover from his injuries.
In January 2018, prosecutors announced criminal charges against Tola and two fellow activists — an activist monk and the executive director of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media — for the mismanagement of funds for the funeral of a fellow activist who was gunned down in daylight. A total of 35 international organizations, as well as major apparel brands, strongly called for an end to the harassment of Tola, and the others, and for the Cambodian Government to respect fundamental human rights and immediately drop the charges.
In July, the Phnom Penh Court acquitted Tola based on a lack of sufficient evidence. The charges against the other two are still pending.
“All the threats I consider inspiring, meaning I did something right,” said Tola. “If I stop, that means I agree to allow the perpetrators to continue exploiting people.”
Tola grew up in the shadow of the Cambodian civil war. Before it ended in 1975, his father, a high ranking official during the regimes, and four of his seven siblings would be killed. He faced early discrimination in his community due to his single mother’s lack of education, which inspired him to seek out educational and professional opportunities, including working in government and as a principal and teacher.
However, as he increasingly witnessed exploitation, corruption and worker strikes, he was inspired to do something more for his country.
Now, as the executive director for the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), which was supported by USAID, Tola has helped provide legal support in more than 2,000 cases involving exploited workers seeking justice.
Assisting Cambodia’s Most Vulnerable
The combination of landlessness, poverty wages, unsafe working conditions and an influx of an estimated 250,000 new workers into the job market annually has seen 1.7 million of Cambodia’s poorest and most vulnerable workers migrate in search of employment over the last decade.
Many expect to earn at least three times their wage than in Cambodia.
The primary country of destination for Cambodian migrant workers is Thailand for work in agribusiness, construction, manufacturing, processing and fishing. Others are trafficked to Malaysia as house maids, or sent to China in forced marriages.
However, many workers do not understand their obligations or cannot read the contracts, which note processing fees deducted from the worker’s expected wages in destination countries. Other workers agree to the terms because, even with the risk and required salary deductions, they see no other viable opportunities to pull themselves out of poverty.
Often no one talks to them about their rights.
In 2010, after learning of the abuse of Cambodian workers abroad severe enough to cause many to commit suicide, Tola was determined to find the root cause. Victims, but especially young girls, often face forced labor; illegal confinement; physical, mental and sexual abuse; rape; and torture.
Along with his CENTRAL team, Tola conducted field studies in communes and villages, and spoke with victims families and local authorities. Through identifying human trafficking patterns and populations most at risk, CENTRAL mapped out the location of Cambodian workers in the destination countries, and began reintegrating them back into their communities.
Today, Tola has also secured settlements from labor brokers for survivors of labor trafficking who returned without pay after years of forced labor on fishing boats. CENTRAL has become a powerful force leading Cambodian working people to demand transparent and accountable governance for labor and human rights.
In July, CENTRAL won the 2018 Labor Rights Defender Award offered by the USAID-supported International Labor Rights Forum due to the organization’s “unwavering humanity, courageous work, and personal vision to ‘live with human dignity and in peace as masters of their country.’”
In collaboration with local leaders such as Tola and organizations like CENTRAL, USAID has continued to deter human trafficking through awareness raising activities and behavior change campaigns in Cambodia. While globally, USAID has reached over 30,000 individuals at-risk for being trafficked, through targeted outreach and support.
USAID plays a unique role in bringing together the multitude of actors — large and small — to collaborate to end human trafficking.
About the Author
Jessica Benton Cooney is the Communications Specialist of USAID’s Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance.
