Success Story: Cambodia is Reducing Human Trafficking

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Sok Chea doesn’t remember the first time she went to Vietnam to panhandle. It must have been three or four years ago, but the 18-year-old Cambodian isn’t sure. What she does remember clearly is the poverty that compelled her to go – a bad harvest that year in Svey Rieng Province left her family with little food – and the fear she felt sleeping on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

“People would shout at me and say terrible things,” she says. The low point came when she was arrested and thrown in a Vietnamese prison, where she endured a month of hunger and rough treatment. Upon her release, she was repatriated to Cambodia.

Sok Chea says no one forced her to panhandle in Vietnam. But she didn’t particularly want to go, either. When she was there, she was required to give a percentage of her earnings to an older man. Like thousands of young Cambodians, she was caught in a gray area of labor exploitation – not technically a victim of human trafficking, but dangerously at risk of becoming one.

Human trafficking is a serious problem in Cambodia. With USAID help, the Cambodian government is working to address it. Last year, USAID worked with the government to set up a task force to help coordinate the hundreds of government agencies and NGOs that work on the issue. The National Task Force against Human Trafficking is designed to cut down on duplication and improve communication among the different actors.

Through the National Task Force, the government launched a national campaign designed to raise awareness about the dangers of trafficking. The campaign used public service announcements and citizen dialogue sessions to great effect, reaching over 85% of the population.

By pointing the government toward the task force and the community dialogues, USAID has positioned itself as a leader on anti-trafficking activities in Cambodia. USAID’s approach is to work on all sides of the issue – Prevention, Protection and Prosecution – in order to address the problem in a comprehensive way. And by working closely with other U.S. agencies in country, USAID is maximizing aid resources. For example, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is working to prosecute American sex offenders in the U.S. when they return home after committing crimes overseas. Meanwhile, State Department officials work together with the Cambodian government on a consultation basis, providing recommendations for action and encouraging positive steps to combat trafficking.

In recognition of the improving situation, Cambodia was removed from the Tier Two Watch List this summer. This was a victory for the Cambodian government, but the real winners were people like Sok Chea.

When Sok Chea returned from the Vietnamese prison to her family’s farm, she began acting distraught and disappearing into the rice field for hours at a time. Her mother took her to see a doctor, but he wasn’t able to help. Finally, a local social worker intervened. In a demonstration of the improving coordination between the government and civil society, which is a cornerstone of the National Task Force’s work, the social worker referred Sok Chea to an NGO-run women’s shelter. She spent six months at the shelter, where she learned to sew. She also attended workshops about the dangers of trafficking, a cornerstone of the Prevention piece of USAID’s approach.

Sok Chea now lives in Phnom Penh, where she works at a garment factory earning much more than she could have back in Svey Rieng. Although she lives with two roommates in spartan, one-room quarters tucked off a busy highway in Phnom Penh’s suburbs, she’s certain her life is on the right track. She’s even become involved in anti-trafficking activism: when she heard that a friend back home was thinking about heading to Vietnam to panhandle, Sok Chea convinced her to come to Phnom Penh to work in the garment factory.

“My mother is so proud of me,” she says. “I’m so grateful to all of the people who helped me.”