Eight Cambodian children, all girls, were repatriated yesterday from Thailand, where they had allegedly been sent earlier this year to be beggars by their parents.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Chum Sonry said the Cambodian Embassy in Thailand worked with the Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, which rescued the children, ages 7 to 13.

“They were sent to be beggars in Thailand by their parents. Now they are safe and repatriated in Poipet town,” he said.

Sonry appealed on behalf of the ministry to parents with small children to not traffic them to be beggars abroad.

“Parents should give children a chance to go to school rather than . . . benefit from human trafficking”, he said.

Local Poipet official Sin Namyoung said the children had been separated from their parents in Thailand and are currently at a care centre in town.

He added that the whereabouts of the parents and how the children came to be separated from them is unknown.

Studies in the past have found that the overwhelming majority of child beggars in Thailand are Cambodian.