Cambodian children more likely to emigrate that those in other Southeast Asia nations

Youngers in Cambodia are more likely to move abroad for work than their counterparts in Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, revealed a report by World Vision.

The NGO questioned 869 Cambodians from the ages of 12 to 25 living in border areas and found that 20 per cent of them had travelled for work, in comparison to 19 per cent and Laos, and 11 and nine per cent in Myanmar and Vietnam respectively.

The study also learnt that most of the Cambodian and Laotian individuals questioned (83 per cent and 71 per cent respectively) were migrating to other countries in search of work, while those from Myanmar and Vietnam opted to stay in their homelands.

World Vision in East Asian communications director Albert Yu explained that the main reason young Cambodians tend to move to other countries more than those in the other countries questioned was because of the easiness in crossing the border with Thailand. He also noted that there were a large number of “informal brokers” in Cambodia that tell them about “promising jobs” in Thailand.

Yu went on to say that the research revealed only around one in three of the youngsters surveyed had crossed to other countries with genuine identity documents, meaning that the majority had entered Thailand illegally. He noted that many Cambodians also know someone who has worked abroad and have heard about the money they send home, which ended up being a “push factor”.

Meanwhile, World Vision’s End Trafficking in Persons regional programme manager John Whan Yoon said that they could now confirm, for the first time, that simply raising awareness was not enough – young people will migrate as they always have done. He insisted that now was the time for traffic prevention agencies to change the focus from prevention to safe migration.