The Phnom Penh Post
LESS than two years after Prum Vannak, a migrant worker, crossed into Thailand via Poipet, he returned to Cambodia a victim of human trafficking.
The 36-year-old Banteay Meanchey province native followed his friend into Thailand in 2008, lured by the promise of a lucrative job in a factory.
His friend’s contacts were waiting for them at the border. They took him to the coast and put them on a boat.
“People in the boat told us that we were cheated by a broker,” Prum Vannak recalled this week.
“They sold us to work on a fishing vessel in the middle of the sea, so we had no choice. We had to work on the boat.” Conditions on the boat, he said, were “like hell”: Work was gruelling and nonstop, the food was never enough, and he never got paid.
When he saw an opportunity to flee as the boat made a rare stop in Malaysia, he took it. He had spent more than a year working for nothing on the vessel.
“When we escaped from the boat, we asked Malaysian police to arrest us,” he said. “We wanted to be held in prison more than working any longer on the fishing boat.”
The 36-year-old Banteay Meanchey province native followed his friend into Thailand in 2008, lured by the promise of a lucrative job in a factory.
His friend’s contacts were waiting for them at the border. They took him to the coast and put them on a boat.
“People in the boat told us that we were cheated by a broker,” Prum Vannak recalled this week.
“They sold us to work on a fishing vessel in the middle of the sea, so we had no choice. We had to work on the boat.” Conditions on the boat, he said, were “like hell”: Work was gruelling and nonstop, the food was never enough, and he never got paid.
When he saw an opportunity to flee as the boat made a rare stop in Malaysia, he took it. He had spent more than a year working for nothing on the vessel.
“When we escaped from the boat, we asked Malaysian police to arrest us,” he said. “We wanted to be held in prison more than working any longer on the fishing boat.”
We wanted to be held in prison more than working any longer on the fishing boat.
Prum Vannak is among the thousands of people who become victims of human trafficking every year in the Kingdom.
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