PHNOM PENH – Five Cambodian trainees who were allegedly deceived by brokers and subjected to exploitative working conditions in Japan have been rescued and sent home with promises of compensation, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
In a statement, the ministry said the Cambodian Embassy in Tokyo, in cooperation with police in Tochigi Prefecture, rescued the five women — aged between 24 and 31 — after they appealed for help from the embassy via its Facebook account.
They arrived home last Friday after being temporarily accommodated at the embassy and securing a promise of cash compensation from the company owner, who had allegedly exploited them by failing to pay them properly for overtime they had worked.
One of the women is due to get the sum of ¥4,640,965, another one ¥3,071,776, a third one ¥2,737,562 and the remaining two got ¥667,301 each, the ministry said.
It said the company, which was not identified, has promised to pay the exploited trainees in full within the year, with the embassy monitoring implementation of the process.
The ministry did not provide additional details involved in the case other than to say Japanese police questioned the trainees about what transpired between them and the brokers.
In a separate case earlier this month, a Cambodian court charged a Japanese national and two Cambodians with illegally recruiting 10 women who were allegedly trafficked to Japan in November last year for sexual exploitation.
Many Cambodians seek higher-paying jobs abroad in countries like Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.
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