The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has warned of action against any child care centre – commonly referred to in the west as orphanages – that does not comply with the ministry’s guidelines and engages in practices such as restricting the rights of the children in their care or preventing them from interacting with others in the community.
According to Phi No, director of the ministry’s Child Welfare Department, any child care centre that scores too far below the minimum required standards or does not obey the ministry’s directives will be given an ultimatum to improve their methods or be shut down.
“Child care centres often play an important role in providing shelter and food for children who have been abandoned by their parents or have no relatives. There are also some very poor families who send their children to these centres in order to ensure that they receive an education and are looked after,” he said.
According to No, there are currently 194 child care centres in Cambodia with more than 5,000 children living in facilities that fall under the ministry’s current action plan for improvement.
Am Sam Ath, deputy director of rights group LICADHO, said it is a good thing that the ministry is planning to close any child care centre that does not follow its policies or meet its primary standards.
Sam Ath said this measure is long overdue, as he had observed that the ministry had not properly inspected some centres and in some cases children were even sent abroad without appropriate procedures in place to ensure that it was not the functional equivalent of the highest bidder buying children instead of adopting them into good homes.
Moreover, children living in these care centres also need to communicate not only within the centre but also with other children outside of them in the local communities in order to become well-adjusted as they grow up and understand what life is like for the average child their age.
“If there is some prohibition from communication with other children outside or in the community, it will seriously affect the rights and development of the children. Therefore, it is right that the ministry has measures to close those centres that adopt that policy,” he said.
