TWENTY-EIGHT families living along rail lines in Tuol Kork district are set to be evicted by municipal authorities on Thursday after receiving an official notice from City Hall, according to community representative Chea Samhong.

“City Hall sent a directive letter to us last week telling us to move out of the area, and that they will pay US$15,000 per family [in compensation],” he said on Tuesday.

He said the families would not leave, and that authorities had used a “fake” document to force them to leave. Families were not allowed to see

the original directive, he said.

Chea Samhong suggested the eviction – the result of plans to upgrade the Kingdom’s rail lines for integration into the Trans-Asian Railway – was another example of a community being uprooted.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun said Tuesday that local authorities would take measures on the date laid out in the notice. “We have enough rights to evict them … because before, we have told them already about it,” he said.