Oddar Meanchey provincial police held 57 foreigners for questioning before sending them to the headquarters of the General Department of Immigration in Siem Reap province. - Meatophoum News
PHNOM PENH: A total of 57 foreign workers from O'Smach Resort Casino in Oddar Meanchey province have been sent to the Siem Reap Provincial Office of the General Department of Immigration after protesting against their Chinese employer. The workers alleged they were forced to work without rest days and had concerns about unpaid wages.
The Oddar Meanchey Provincial Police rapid response team reported on January 7 that the workers included 53 Pakistanis, two of them women, and four Nepalese. They left the premises of the casino and staged a protest on January 5. Provincial police officers calmed the situation down and escorted all 57 protestors to the provincial police station for questioning.
The workers had initially been employed in Sihanoukville for two or three months but claimed they had not received any salaries. They were then transferred by the company to work at the Oddar Meanchey casino.
“After working at the O'Smach Resort Casino for 10 days, the workers were forced by an unidentified Chinese manager to work without rest days. Fearing they would not receive their salaries, as they allege happened in Sihanoukville, they decided to protest,” said the police.
The workers gathered outside the casino premises holding wooden sticks and demanding adequate rest days. Some wanted to continue working at the same location and others preferred to return to companies in Sihanoukville, while some expressed a desire to return to their home countries.
After questioning the workers, the provincial police transferred them to the Siem Reap Provincial Office of the General Department of Immigration. Following standard procedure, after questioning and the completion of the necessary documentation, the foreign workers will be deported from Cambodia.
General Sok Veasna, general director of the Ministry of Interior’s General Department of Immigration, could not be reached for comment at the time of publication. – The Phnom Penh Post/ANN
