Fifty-nine families living in Siem Reap’s Slor Kram commune protested to urge the authorities to speed up the process of giving them land deeds, saying they have been waiting three years already.

Assembling on Wednesday, the villagers say that Prime Minister Hun Sen said land would be cut out of an Apsara Authority plot and given to them back in 2015.

Chiv Nara, who represented the families, said people in Thlork Andong village have not received deeds yet despite having bought the land legally and lived on it since 1997.

She said in the last few years, Apsara Authority threatened to move people from the area by claiming they lived on the land that was within the Angkor Archeological Park.

After initially protesting, the prime minister called for them to be given land.