Migrant workers protested yesterday outside the Phnom Penh office of a company they claim cheated them out of thousands of dollars and abandoned them on the way to Thailand.

The demonstrators gathering outside the Chin Vanda Manpower company in Sen Sok district were surprised that the company had taken down its logo from the front gate, and on learning that the firm was not a registered recruitment agency.

Some of the workers, who each say they paid hundreds of dollars in fees to Chin Vanda Manpower, travelled to the Ministry of Labour to lodge complaints.

Worker Soung Sina said that on Friday they were bussed to border checkpoints in Battambang and Poipet.

But the company employees then abandoned them at the bus depot.

“We paid a fee of $300 to $400 each to go to Thailand to work at an electronics company, but they ditched us at the bus stop,” he said.

He added that one of the firm’s employees, Seng Salen, had been “arrested” by the protesters.

Mo On, 32, said she and her two sisters had heard of the job openings via a radio advertisement.

“We were not afraid of being arrested or our labour being exploited, but in the end, the firm cheated us,” she said.

Heng Sour, a spokesman for the Ministry of Labour, said that the ministry was ready to provide lawyers to represent workers who filed complaints.