By Amy Lieberman : Cambodian women who go abroad to Malaysia to work as domestic workers find the work fraught with abuse. Much of the mistreatment starts right away, in recruitment pre-departure training centers in Phnom Penh. (WOMENSENEWS)--Cambodian recruitment agencies for domestic migrant workers backtracked on a decision announced in May and said at the end of June they would no longer send domestic workers to Kuwait, following complaints of lack of legal and human rights protection for migrant workers. But that policy doesn't extend east to Malaysia, which drew more than 16,000 Cambodian domestic workers – almost all of them female – in 2010. Many workers come home complaining about pay that is withheld for at least four to seven months; work shifts that are unspecified and long; food shortages; and physical and verbal abuse, according to local human rights and labor rights organizations in Phnom Penh, the country's capital. Cambodian workers first experience a taste of life in Malaysia in the Phnom Penh pre-departure recruitment training centers, where they wait for an average three months for their visas to clear. "Once you are inside the center, you cannot leave, even if you are sick," said Moeun Tola, chief of the labor program unit at the Community Legal Education Center, based in Phnom Penh. "If you want to leave, you have to pay the agency a lot of money; $600 to $1,500 to cover costs for your training, food and housing. No one staying there has this kind of money." Recruited women are often divorced or widowed, placing them in low social and economic standing in their communities that leaves them particularly vulnerable to abuse. Read Full : Recruiters Round Up Cambodians to Work in Malaysia | Womens eNews
