Prior to 2008, research documented some brothel-based sex workers who experienced debt bondage or forms of indentured labour. It was reportedly standard practice for brothel owners to retain the identity cards of sex workers who were repaying debts to owners, which restricted capacity to travel.375 Focus group discussions with entertainment workers held in 2011 in Kampong Cham, Prek Leap and in Phnom Penh found that debt bondage is no longer considered to be a problem: SIT staff and activists said that some waitresses who work and sleep in some big restaurants along Prek Leap area of Phnom Penh might borrow some money from restaurant owners, however, none of them had heard about retaining of identity cards for such small money lending these days. The CPU (Cambodian Prostitutes Union) members said that money lending still exist between some EWs (entertainment workers) and karaoke or massage owners due to personal and or family needs of entertainment workers, however, there’s no indentured labour involved. Two out of the seven CPU members interviewed said that they borrowed money from the karaoke owner due to their families’ problem but they are free to work in that shop or in any other karaoke shops they like or where they can earn more income.376 Law enforcement approaches Initiatives of the Royal Government of Cambodia and civil society (with support from UN and donor partners) have significantly improved the legal environment for HIV responses among sex workers since 2009. This section refers first to the difficulties experienced in policing of the sex industry, most of which occurred prior to 2010. It then describes the progress that has been achieved in developing a more enabling policy environment through adopting new approaches to policing and HIV risk reduction in the period 20102012. Police abuses against sex workers were reported during a police crackdown in 2008. Police reportedly relied on the soliciting offence under the Trafficking Law, public order offences and rental laws to target entertainment workers.377 The Trafficking Law has been criticized for being drafted in an overly broad manner, with many elements lacking precise definition, enabling arbitrary enforcement against sex workers during the crackdown.378 Research by Human Rights Watch found that police extortion and demands for bribes were common in 2008-2009. Sex workers reported incidents of arbitrary detention, violation of due process rights, beatings, physical violence, rape, sexual harassment, forced labour, extortion, confiscation of their belongings, and other ill-treatment.379 During the 2008 crackdown, sex workers were held in two detention centres where human rights
375 Sandy L. (2006) My Blood, Sweat and Tears. 2006 Unpub. doctoral thesis submitted to the Australian National University, p.143. 376 Serey Phal Kien, Consultancy Report to UNDP, Jan 2012. Focus groups involved Women’s Network for Unity, Cambodian Prostitutes Union and Save Incapacity Teenager. 377 Cambodian Alliance for Combating HIV/AIDS (CACHA) (2009), The Policies Environments regarding Universal Access and the Right to Work of Entertainment Workers/Sex Workers, Phnom Penh: CACHA, p.78. Low S., (2009) Summary of Key Research Findings for NAA in collaboration with CACHA, WNU, CPU, CNMWD, CCW and BC, Phnom Penh: CACHA, p.5. 378 Overs C. (2008), op cit., p.3. 379 Human Rights Watch (2010) Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia. New York: Human Rights Watch; A study in 2006 found one third of a sample of sex workers in Phnom Penh were gang-raped by police in the past year and one half were beaten by police: Jenkins C., Cambodian Prostitutes’ Union (CPU), Women’s Network for Unity (WNU), Sainsbury C. (2008) Violence and exposure to HIV among sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Washington: POLICY Project USAID, pp.32-42.
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