DANGKOR district officials said at a public forum on Thursday that they were concerned about what they described as a recent influx of poor and HIV-affected families.

Im Sakhorn, the deputy chief of Dangkor’s Prey Veng commune, said families there were already poverty-stricken, and that the presence of more poor families was hindering development.

“HIV/AIDS evictees from poor families in central Phnom Penh were moved to live in my commune, but most of the people in my commune are already poor,” he said at the forum, which was organised by the National League of Communes and Districts.

Roughly 40 HIV-affected families were relocated to Dangkor’s Tuol Sambo village last summer after being evicted from the Borei Keila community in central Phnom Penh.

Phy Nop, chief of Dangkor’s Kork Roka commune, said the influx of poor families in the district was “not fair”.