The girls’ app Bung Baitong or ‘Green Receipts’ is a mobile application that facilitates and encourages both customers and coffee shops to go green and stop using paper receipts. Photo supplied
The Cambodian Embassy in Thailand on Friday described allegations of the firing and mistreatment of more than 50 Cambodian migrant workers in the country as “fake news”.
On December 17 a Facebook account named “Chhun Vean Khmer” had posted an allegation that the Cambodian workers in Thailand had been dismissed by their Thai business owners and that their passports and other documents had not been returned to them.
“The embassy would like to clarify that after receiving the information from the Facebook account, embassy officials were assigned to ascertain the locations where more than 50 Cambodian workers were reportedly working in Chonburi province,” a Cambodian embassy press release said.
The embassy said the Facebook post had used outdated pictures to confuse the public.
The press release said the embassy cares about Cambodian migrant workers who stay and work in Thailand, legally and illegally, and assists Cambodian nationals by providing laissez-passers [temporary travel documents], death certificates and legal consultation.
It also attempts to resolve labour conflicts between business owners and Cambodian workers, cases of deception by brokers and many other types of case.
The embassy said that recently 32 Cambodian nationals who worked in a factory named BNS had filed a complaint to the embassy requesting help because they said they did not have passports and the factory owners were not allowing them to work.
It said consular officials went to meet them outside the factory and discovered that they were working illegally in Thailand.
“We told them that they were illegal workers in Thailand and requested them to re-enter that country under the MoU [memorandum of understanding],” the embassy said.
“Twenty-eight of the workers asked the embassy to give them laissez-passer temporary travel documents in order to return to Cambodia and [they said they] would re-enter Thailand with new passports.”
The MoU was signed on November 7 by the Manpower Association of Cambodia and the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies along with the Thai-Cambodian Relations Association, to promote rights and welfare and protect Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand.
