The Centre for Alliance of Labour and Human Rights (CENTRAL) inaugurated its Migrant Worker Resource Centre (MWRC) in Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon town on May 13 to provide counselling services to workers seeking information about safe migration.

CENTRAL executive director Moeun Tola said his organisation opened the MWRC to fill five main purposes in helping workers understand migration.

“First, the MWRC is a site that provides information on migration safety and provides free services to current and former migrant workers or victims of human and labour trafficking,” he said.

Tola said the second purpose of the MWRC is to be a library resource for migrant workers, citizens and students who are doing research related to the field of migrant work. The third purpose is providing a place to hold training or to organise training for workers on labour rights or safe migration.

The fourth purpose is to provide migrant workers with migration safety advisers who they can meet to discuss experiences and lessons for the entire community, and the fifth purpose is to help migrants network with other sectors.

“I hope that the new centre will be able to contribute to helping the local authorities as well as the government in preventing human trafficking, labour trafficking and other forms of trafficking in Banteay Meanchey.

“Migrants will receive clear information on migration safety before making a decision and possibly mitigate some of their risks,” he said.

Hong Prakorp, deputy director of the provincial Department of Labour and Vocational Training, said that providing advice and specific information related to occupational safety to migrant workers is very important and the government has made efforts to establish laws that protect workers’ rights.

“From now on, we will have a centre for our workers to get specific information for migrants or people who want to work abroad. Our workers will get enough information to know how to safely work abroad,” he said.

Meanwhile, deputy governor Ros Sophany called on Cambodian workers to avoid brokers who promise to get them jobs abroad by crossing the border illegally.

“During the Covid-19 period, we caught more than 100 brokers. I interviewed some of our fellow workers in the quarantine centres who said they were cheated by brokers and lost a lot of money without getting any jobs. This is partly because they did not have enough information available to them about migration,” he said.

She also asked the workers with lots of experience and knowledge related to migration to help spread the word to young people, their neighbours and their families so that they understand all these issues and avoid being cheated or placing themselves in danger.