Cambodian embassy officials in Malaysia – in collaboration with the Malaysian immigration police – repatriated a Cambodian fisherman after finding him adrift at sea and rescuing him.

The man said he jumped off the boat he was working on to escape from co-workers who intended to harm him, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said.

According to an August 15 notice, the Cambodian worker, Pei Poeurn, 41, originally hailed from Trabek commune’s Tralach Sar village in Prey Veng province’s Kamchay Mear district. He had gone to work illegally on a fishing boat in the Panchor area of Perak state in Malaysia after being hired through a broker in early 2020.

“Poeurn felt that his life was in danger from other foreign workers on the boat who intended to harm him, so he jumped off the boat and was floating with a buoy for four days at sea before being rescued by Naval forces stationed at the Lumut area in Perak state on June 26, 2021,” foreign affairs ministry spokesman Koy Kuong announced.

Kuong said that the team from the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia had worked with the Malaysian navy to retrieve Poeurn from the naval facility.

The embassy then provided Poeurn with food and temporary accommodations in Penang state, which is near Perak state. After questioning him it was determined that he did not have any further information to provide to the Malaysian authorities regarding the illegal fishing boat’s owner or crew and he asked the embassy to help him return to Cambodia.

Kuong explained that through the “repatriation recalibration plan” the Cambodian embassy had issued a temporary travel letter for Poeurn and coordinated with the Malaysian immigration officials to send him home.

They then transported him to Kuala Lumpur International Airport to catch a ride back to Cambodia via a Singapore Airlines flight that is scheduled to arrive at Phnom Penh International Airport at 5:30pm on August 15.