Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Korea Companies Arranging Illegal Marriages: NGO


Written by DAP NEWS -- Tuesday, 27 October 2009

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian officials and South Korean companies have conspired to illegally arrange marriages between Korean men and Cambodian women, according to a Monday statement from women’s protection NGO in Cambodia.

Jang Min Hyeok, a representative of the Association for People’s Prote- ction (APP), told DAP News Cambodia that since 2008, when marriages were made illegal, there have been “many illegal ways to arrange both Cambo-dian and Korean wrongdoing.”

Jang Min did not confirm which companies had indulged in illegalities, but said his APP had kept track of all illegal arranged marriage activities. He did name the Korean company OUI Rim as having pictures of over 1,800 Cambodian women. “This is a sexual market trafficking,” he said.

The Cambodian Government banned marriages of Cambodian women to foreigners after reports of abusive marriages, mostly with South Koreans and Taiwanese, that sometimes resulted in slave labor or sexual exploitation. Some Cambodian women had been illegally enticed with cash payments, the NGO alleged.

Some Cambodian officials are apparently implicated in corruption for arranging the paperwork for the arranged marriages.

“Although, the new law was set by the government, as the APP will continue to observe all activities,” Jang Min said. “I would like to ask the Cambodian Government to manage this task. It is the best time to destroy all illegal ways.”

Cambodian Interior Minister Khieu Sopheak said that authorities were making progress in the battle against the scourge of human trafficking.

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