In what is becoming an all too familiar tale, another mother of a domestic worker who was sent to Malaysia has filed a complaint alleging her daughter is being exploited.

Chea Si Yan said yesterday she wanted her daughter and goddaughter to come home because they have been forced to work almost constantly with inadequate meals and were deprived of any freedom since they were sent to Malaysia in March.

“I pity my daughter. Right now she has become sick. I appealed for help to get them back to their homeland. She told me by phone that she worked from 7am to 12pm,” she said, adding they had not received any of their salaries.

The 58-year-old woman from Pursat province’s Kandieng district said she had filed a complaint with the rights group Adhoc on Friday seeking their help to repatriate her 31-year-old daughter, Sanh Makara, and 30-year-old goddaughter, Moa Chamroune.

The families of both women were given US$200 and 250 kilograms of rice after they signed two-year contracts with the labour recruitment firm Champa Manpower, she said.

Last month, the government temporarily banned labour recruitment firms from sending domestic workers to Malaysia and told them to empty their training centres amid a spate of abuse allegations that included routinely locking families into debt bondage.

Representatives of Champa Manpower and An Bunhak, president of the Cambodian Association of Recruitment Agencies, could not be reached for comment.

Lim Mony, a deputy head of the women’s section at Adhoc, said she had been unable to contact Champa Manpower because the firm had shut down. “We will investigate and file complaints to relevant authorities,” she said.