A local NGO has reported that justice has been served in a historic trafficking case seen by the Tbong Khmum Provincial Court. In 2024, a woman was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison and ordered to pay 15 million riel ($3,750) in compensation to her niece-in-law after being found guilty of trafficking her to China. She was apprehended earlier this month by the authorities.
The Anti-Human Trafficking Office of the Tbong Khmum Provincial Police arrested the woman, Touch Yorn, on November 5, in Sambatean Kampi village, Sambok commune, Chitr Borei district, in Kratie province, under an arrest warrant issued by the court for the trafficking change.
The offending took place in 2017, according to human rights NGO ADHOC.
In October of that year, a 29-year-old woman, from Trapaing Pring village and commune in Tbong Khmum’s Dambe district, was persuaded by Yorn, her aunt-in-law, to travel to China for work.
Yorn claimed that working there would allow her to earn a high salary to send back home. She also promised that if any problem arose, she would help bring her back to Cambodia. Instead, the victim was forced into marriage with a Chinese man, tied to the payment of a dowry.
After the victim’s family filed requests for assistance to the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, she was finally repatriated to Cambodia in March 2022 and subsequently filed a legal complaint.
At the request of the victim, ADHOC provided various forms of support, including social assistance, medical care, basic necessities, family reunification support and legal services to protect her rights and represent her in court.
On July 4, 2024, the Tbong Khmum Provincial Court delivered its verdict, sentencing the accused to seven years in prison and ordering her to pay 15 million riel in compensation to the victim for the offense of “unlawful removal with intent” under Articles 08 and 10 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation. An arrest warrant was issued at that time.
The woman is currently serving her sentence at the Tbong Khmum Provincial Prison.
