Police in Pursat town have concluded that the death of a 46-year-old man found about midnight yesterday was a self-inflicted hanging.

The father of seven had been drinking heavily the evening prior, Pursat town police chief Lim Song told the Post.

The seven children of the deceased had been watching television at a neighbour’s house in Banteay Dei commune and discovered their father’s body when they returned home.

“We suspect that the victim committed suicide,” Song said.

Song said the deceased had suffered from mental illness ever since his wife went to work as a maid in Malaysia a year ago.

The remaining family membershad heard no news from the wife ever since she left, Lim Song said.

Chuon Chamrong, head of Adhoc’s Women and Children Section, said that an Adhoc report released in June shows that in 70 per cent of migrant worker cases reported to Adhoc, families had lost contact with one or more family members abroad.

In order to improve communication between migrant workers and their families, she said that the Ministry of Interior’s anti-human trafficking department has said that this Friday it would establish a hotline to help families get in touch with their relatives abroad.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khoun Leakhana at [email protected]

With assistance from Justine Drennan