A Lie to Unify

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Eight months work amounted to $34 US.

Eight months of shouldering heavy sacks of rice and piling them onto boats, for 15 hours a day, and that’s all Suon was paid - the equivalent of 14 cents US per day.

This Cambodian father of seven left his rural home determined to earn more income for his young family.

“Sometimes, we lacked food and it was too hard when my children asked me for money to buy snacks,” says Suon’s wife.

To solve this crisis, Suon migrated to Thailand and was coerced into a job lifting rice sacks from a shipyard onto a boat.

Despite the minimum wage laws that existed in Thailand, for an illegal migrant like Suon, there was no payment guaranteed and no rights.

Back in Cambodia, his wife kept worrying. She hadn’t heard anything from Suon during those months.

“I wept when my little girls asked me about their father. I was afraid he would die and that I would not see his face,” Suon’s wife says.  

Missing home, and especially his young daughters, Suon asked permission from his manager to return for a visit. He asked for his wage.

The owner refused.

“Later, I told him (manager) a lie that my wife and child died, then he let me come home,” Suon says.

After working for nearly eight months, Suon came back home with only 1,100 baht (US 34 dollars).

Not only was Suon exploited for his labour, his nephew who joined him on the journey and worked alongside him was exploited too. Fortunately, his nephew understood some Thai language, thus both of them came together and found their way home.

Because of this experience, Suon doesn’t want to see other men fall into the same trap.

“I would tell them to be careful going to work outside the country,” Suon says.

Suon has since returned back to his previous life and found joy with his his wife and children.

“I am happy to be at home working on a plot of land. What I enjoy the most is spending time with my children,” Suon says.

Suon is representative of thousands of Cambodians who leave home. Hunger and poverty has forced Cambodian to travel for work opportunities in Thailand and other more industrialized countries where they can earn a higher income. The minimum wage for a month’s work in Thailand is US 300 dollars while in Cambodia it is US 60 dollars according to website in Business in Asia.

World Vision works with communities in Cambodia, Laos, China, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand to conduct awareness sessions about trafficking and labour exploitation. The aim of these sessions is to ensure people have adequate knowledge about safe migration before they leave home, in order to prevent situations like the one Suon found himself in.