More than 200 Cambodian vendors from Rong Kluea Market in Thailand showed up at Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet Town Hall yesterday to submit a petition seeking Prime Minister Hun Sen’s intervention after a series of crackdowns on counterfeit goods by Thai authorities. The vendors staged the protest after missing out on business for more than a week.

According to a copy of the petition, the vendors are appealing to Hun Sen to negotiate with Thai authorities for permission to continue selling their goods.

Sem Som, one of the vendors, said, “We could not sell [our goods] for more than a week after the Thai authorities came to seize them without informing us. Most of the vendors need the money to support their families.”

After a crackdown early last year, Thai authorities set a deadline of April 2016 for the vendors to stop selling counterfeits. Poipet governor Ngor Meng Chroun said officials “are negotiating with Thai authorities but they are asking us to follow their law”.