The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “You'll be rewarded” plus 9 more

It undermines everything we've done before and is saying it's OK to ignore the set rules and regulations [regarding strikes] and you'll be rewarded.

Border police in Oddar Meanchey province have been accused of extorting money from charcoal sellers and colluding with Thai brokers to smuggle the goods to Thailand.

Twenty-one charcoal producers representing 100 families in Oddar Meanchey's Banteay Ampil district in a letter to the Post yesterday called on the authorities to intervene in what they said was a 60-ton-a-day illegal export business.

Lay Virak, 35, one of the letter's signatories, said they were being forced to pay up to 20,000 riel ($5) to forestry officials and police officers who threatened to arrest them and seize their goods.

"They banned us from making and selling charcoal by making an excuse that it's bad for the forest and environment. In fact, they put pressure on us to quit this career so it will be easy for a border police official to monopolise the business," he said.

For more than a year, he claimed, a local police officer named Keo Thanak had run his own charcoal business, forcing loggers to sell to him at the lowest possible price.

"He forced us to sell [charcoal] to him at a cheaper price, or he will quarrel with us. He just wants to monopolise the business and does not want us to survive," Virak added.

Hong Chamroeurn, Banteay Ompil district police chief, yesterday denied the allegations, claiming instead that people may be posing as police officers to extort the money.

"My police did not take money, because charcoal sellers only make small money to live," he said, asking charcoal vendors to report crimes to the police.

Hor Chinvirakyuth, O'Smach checkpoint director, also denied the allegations, saying there are no charcoal exports to Thailand.

"We do not allow any charcoal exports to Thailand. It is illegal," he said.

A look ahead with Cambodia's business leaders.

Ian Watson, Cellcard CEO
The challenges facing the mobile operators in Cambodia are numerous. The market still needs to consolidate further. There are still too many mobile operators for the size of the market, and the confusion surrounding investment and pricing issues, which affect both customers and the mobile companies, needs to be addressed.

The telecommunications regulator will be key to ensure future growth and that the competitive nature of the market remains. It needs to lead and direct the market in a way which stimulates demand, whilst at the same time creating a fair and open market for both end users in terms of clarity of pricing, and as a result, give the mobile networks the confidence in terms of commitment to future investment.

The biggest growth will be from the rise in consumers utilising data. More and more people continue to access data through their mobile device and transact through their phone.

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Song Saran, AMRU Rice (Cambodia) CEO
WE EXPECT that the quantity of Cambodia's rice exports will reach around 650,000 tonnes in 2014, closer to the government's goal of 1 million tonnes in 2015.

Cambodia still has potential to expand the market in Europe, but exporters are also trying to go to emerging markets in Asia and West Africa to maintain sustainable growth.

We foresee that in 2014, the government of Cambodia will be more responsible for reducing unofficial payments than past years. The government is providing easier export procedures and facilitating the lower costs of transporting goods, which is a significant improvement to better compete with neighboring countries.

The industry is expected to see exports of more than $438 million in 2014. The average price of high-quality Cambodian rice will be maintained at $900 per tonne, and $460 per tonne for long-grain white rice.

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Te Taing Por, FASMEC president
I believe Cambodia's SMEs will keep improving year by year.

In 2014, FASMEC (the Federation of Association for Small & Medium Enterprises of Cambodia) plans to discuss with the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts to promote copyrights of our products' logo and labels. We also plan to discuss with banks and microfinance institutions about lowering interest rates on loans for SMEs.

We hope to see more startups with fewer challenges. The established ones are working to equip their products with standards and packaging, which I believe will help our local products target 60 million customers worldwide by 2015.

The challenges remaining for the sector are the high costs of production, especially energy costs. Marketing and advertising of products made by SMEs are still very limited – either they are too expensive or the SMEs do not do much marketing on the product.

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Lamun Soleil, CSX official
Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) has received and approved two new companies on its Listing Eligibility Review request: Grand Twin International Ltd and TY Fashion Co Ltd Both were underwritten by Phnom Penh Securities.

We hope the stock exchange market will get more activity next year, as CSX is expecting at least [these] two companies to be listed – Grand Twin International Ltd will be on the listing in early 2014, and the TY Fashion Co Ltd will follow around mid-year.

But everything now is subject to change, as garment strikes are going on every day.

We do not know if the issue will have any impact on the possibility of the two companies to join the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority on the exchange. Even though it is very unlikely, if the strike does not end soon, it can be a concern.

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Bun Mony, Cambodia Microfinance Association president.
2014 is a promising year.
The size of outstanding loan portfolios will maintain 30 to 40 per cent growth rates, up from $1.2 billion at the end of 2013. Deposits will increase at least 50 per cent from 2013. Portfolios at Risk, a standard to measure the portion of a portfolio deemed vulnerable because payments are overdue, is expected to maintain below 1 per cent.

I don't think there will be many new players in the market. By the end of 2013, there were 37 licensed microfinance institutions and two rural credit operators registered with our association. But the number of office networks and number of clients will go up.

One or two leading microfinance institutions will upgrade to commercial banks in 2014. We also expect that all key players will install at least 100 ATM machines by 2014. Microfinance institutions will continue to develop new products for the local market, such as mobile payments, housing loans and insurance products.

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Peter Brimble, ADB Cambodia's deputy director.
The Asia Development Bank forecasts growth to pick up from 7.2 per cent in 2013 to 7.5 per cent in 2014 as recovery gains traction in Europe and the United States, and traditional Cambodian growth drivers of agriculture, garments and tourism perform well.

However, following the government directive in November to enforce the legal tax rates on imported goods, the resulting inflationary pressures led to an adjustment of inflation in December 2013 to an average 3.5 per cent in 2013 and 4.5 per cent in 2014, up from the 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent in September 2013. These estimates assume no economic impacts of the instability following the July national elections and no deterioration in the external economic environment. These developments, as well as the damages caused by the 2013 floods, will be carefully monitored in early 2014.

Indications in ADB's country pipeline for 2014–2016 are for Asia Development Fund loan financing amounting to $602 million over the three years.

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Emmanuel Menanteau, Cambodia Airports CEO
Driven by government planning and the airlines themselves in 2013, Cambodia's aviation sector is on track to maintain and even increase momentum in 2014.

With that, Cambodia Airports is addressing the Kingdom's air travel industry for the next decade by launching extension works for the passenger terminals at the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports.

By 2015, it is expected that each platform will see its capacity double from the current 2.5 million passengers per year to 5 million per year.

Challenges for Cambodia's airports and aviation in 2013 included completing the design phase for the coming extensions, planning the works of the contractors and our operational teams prior to the launch of the upgrading program.

Next year and beyond, however, we will finalise the master plan on the Kingdom's airports and implementation of the extension.

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Grant Knuckey, ANZ Royal Bank CEO
2013 has been a great year for ANZ Royal, though one which could have been even better were it not for the sluggishness of the economy through the last few months.

There were two major challenges this year from a bank perspective: First, the impact of the election on business confidence, and second, the continued increase in competition in the banking sector. These both look like being continued challenges in 2014.

The banking sector has become "two-tiered" – a foreign-funded segment which has a funding cost advantage and is driving down loan pricing, which the intrinsic risk does not support, and a domestically funded segment, which is increasingly marginalised.

This is not healthy for the sector and yet can be easily prevented through the imposition of measures such as loan-to-deposit ratios.

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Chhay Rattanak, IAC chairman
Cambodia's insurance industry has enjoyed annual growth rates of about 20 per cent, and we expect that the performance in the industry this year will keep increasing at the same speed.

We have just amended our fire insurance standard rate, and it is already approved in principle by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Thus, we will have the new standard enforced in the market in 2014.

Furthermore, the Insurance Association of Cambodia will cooperate with the Malaysian Insurance Institute to set up a training centre in Phnom Penh by the end of this year.

There's been really good progress in terms of insurance awareness compared to 2012. Cambodian people are showing more interest in buying insurance, especially motor vehicle insurance, while in the past they used it as part of work benefits that their company paid for.

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Keo Mom, CWEA board member
Women entrepreneurship has contributed to the expansion of Cambodia's economy.

Membership in the Cambodia Women Entrepreneurs Association (CWEA) in 2013 has increased to more than 100.

Among the members, we have women from different sectors, ranging from hotel and restaurant service, to food production and handicrafts.

For 2014, I want to see more women entrepreneurs in the private sector.

The challenges remaining for women entrepreneurship is the lack of technical knowledge, including financial management to staff management, and the lack of capital to expand businesses.

The bank sector should consider providing loans to women entrepreneurs with lower interest rates.

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In Channy, Acleda Bank CEO
IN ADDITION to the financial sector, my eyes will be on Cambodia's agricultural sector, which is on track for rapid growth in 2014.

For Acleda Bank, encouraging micro businesses, medium corporate enterprise, lending to the agricultural sector and agricultural related businesses will be our main focus for the year ahead.

Acleda's major projects for 2014 include improving financial services for public sector employees and government officials.

Finally, expanding and upgrading Acleda's electronic infrastructure remains a huge project, as we address and increase customer and banking staff security and risk mitigation.

Meanwhile, as 2013 comes to a close, Acleda Bank is on track to post assets totaling 104 per cent of the annual budget estimates.

As mass garment strikes enter a second week, fast-approaching buyer deadlines have manufacturers fretting about transport costs and mounting bills.

At least two of Cambodia's hundreds of garment manufacturers, which ceased operations last week after workers walked off the job demanding a 100 per cent wage increase, will consider paying more than three times their usual transport costs to meet due dates and avoid late penalties.

Nam-Shik Kang, the managing director of Injae Garment Co in Phnom Penh, said manufacturers are expecting to have to fork out thousands of extra dollars to send their shipments by air freight instead of by ship to meet the looming deadlines and avoid penalties. This scenario, however, is still contingent on workers returning to finish off orders for shipment, an unlikely prospect in the short term.

"All manufacturers are facing the same issues. We are looking at spending the extra money on air freight in the coming weeks to meet the demands of the buyers," he said.

The employer of 3,500 garment workers said the transportation cost is only the tip of the iceberg regarding the residual effects the strikes will have on the economy.

While the total cost of the 2013 strikes remain unknown, in September 2010 an estimated 160,000 garment workers demonstrated for three days, causing at least $15 million in lost profits, according to a report published by the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights later that year.

By those standards, this strike, motivated by the government's decision to raise wages to $95 instead of the asked-for $160, will likely be costlier.

"I am very upset as I have been forced to close my factory. Up to 3,500 workers not working, missing buyer deadlines, lost production and increased transportation costs such as the air freight. Who is going to compensate the industry on these massive losses? Who?" an exasperated Kang said.

Despite sporadic road blocks on major transport routes in and out of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's largest port in Sihanoukville is still receiving and shipping the same amount of goods.

Va Sonath, deputy chief of the port, said there is currently no concern, but he'll be monitoring the situation in the coming weeks.

Shipping levels have remained steady throughout December. Last week, 4,445 containers passed through, compared to 4,523 the week before, Sonath said.

"The figure tells us there is no impact on garment exporting yet. [But] If there is a pause in production, surely the number of garment exports will decrease. I believe the government will find a solution to the issue soon."

Sonath added that profits will certainly suffer as a result of inflated air-freight prices.

"Air shipping is only a temporary solution if they want to deliver their product fast. Air shipping costs like 10 times more compared to the cost at the port. They [garment factory owners] will not be able to make any profits sending products by air," he said.

The deputy chief of administration at the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Kin Sen, said there were also normal shipping trends over the weekend.

"Whether or not the garment shipping will be decreased in the next two or three week, we do not know," she said.

Nhim Bunrith, operator of Phnom Penh-based Apsara Garment Co, said he expects to pay three or four times the price of a standard shipping container for air freight charges if he has any chance of meeting his Japanese clients' due date.

"Deadline penalties are a real consequence manufacturers are facing … depending on the size of the container, it costs between $1,000 and $2,000 for a 20-foot shipping container – the smallest size. Air freight meanwhile, costs the company triple that figure or more."

The factory owner, who exports on average 30,000 garment units a month, said while transportation poses a significant threat to the future of his 350-worker operation, there are also day-to-day bills such as electricity and administration costs.

He said he's considering other, more extreme, options.

"In fact, we are looking ourselves to other countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar – only if the situation continues to worsen. Our company has already discussed plans to leave Cambodia and I would not be surprised to see buyers looking elsewhere too."

Bunrith's less-than-optimistic sentiments about the current garment sector climate, which up until December this year was responsible for $5.7 billion of Cambodia's total exports – the largest of all – were mirrored by the International Labour Organisation, which issued a statement yesterday calling for factories to reopen hastily.

"As [the garment industry is] Cambodia's largest industrial sector, accounting for some … 400,000 jobs, the risks arising out of the current situation are significant for a sector which continues to operate in an intensely competitive international environment," the statement said.

The ILO added that unrest highlighted the need for Cambodia to adopt a "more modern and robust" minimum wage system with annual reviews.

Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the industry group was unable to provide manufacturers with advice on alternate means of transporting goods or meeting their deadlines given the comprehensive roadblocks in place, but that GMAC had sent a letter informing the international buyer community of the industry's status.

"Have we received any responses from the buyer community? No, it's not our relationship to uphold and it is a matter for the manufacturers and their clients," Loo said.

Tivea Koam, spokesman for the ILO offshoot Better Factories Cambodia, said buyers are undoubtedly concerned about labour unrest and its impact on production lines and supply chains.

"[But] the buyer community is too diverse to make general statements. Some large international buyers have made strong commitments to Cambodia and understand the complexity of the work environment," he said. "Other buyers may decide to shift orders if the situation is not resolved in the near future."

Hiroshi Suzuki, CEO and chief economist at the Business Research Institute for Cambodia, said while the garment sector will not be immediately affected by the strikes, the first and "major" impact would be felt by striking workers who go without pay.

"It is not so easy to estimate the damage in an amount of money," he said. "The garment sector has enjoyed a good performance up to November with a 22 per cent increase on 2012, so the impact to Cambodian economy for 2013 would be very limited."

H&M and Nike, two prominent global brands who source from Cambodia, did not immediately return requests for comment.

A simple fishing trip to clear the head turned out to be a stressful experience for a man in Banteay Meanchey province.

Police said the man, 30, parked his wheels near the pond when a woman took advantage of his back being turned and stole it.

A witness identified her, and cops raided the woman's home on Sunday, finding the moto, and arresting her. DEUM AMPIL

A treacherous final two months on Cambodia's roads saw the overall number of road fatalities rise to 1,901 for the year, with 174 deaths since the beginning of November.

There were nearly 400 accidents during this period alone, bringing the total figure to 4,322 in 2013.

Pea Kimvong, head of education for the National Road Safety Committee's safety campaigns, said that the high number of traffic accidents was attributed to the lack of government attention and law enforcement.

"After the election the government decreased the number of policemen enforcing the law on important busy streets, so there are not enough forces to control the traffic," he said.

Kem Panha, director of the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, referred to 2012 road accident data that showed that 68 per cent of the deaths on Cambodian roads were passengers on motorbikes, and two thirds of those deaths were caused by head injuries.

"People's road safety knowledge, and their behaviour towards not wearing helmets, is a real concern," he said.

Representatives of the National Police refused to comment on the road fatality figures yesterday.

A Nigerian national alleged to have smuggled nearly 3 kilograms of methamphetamine through Phnom Penh International Airport was convicted yesterday following his arrest in June, according to court officials.

John Onyinye Ukachi, 38, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and fined 100 million riel [$25,000] by Phnom Penh Municipal Court for international drug trafficking and transport, in violation of Article 40 of the Kingdom's anti-drug laws, said judge Chea Sok Heang.

Ukachi was arrested by anti-drug authorities on June 8, after flying from Nigeria through Singapore en route to Cambodia, according to Sok Heang, and tried by the court on December 20.

Following the arrest, 2.7 kilograms of methamphetamines hidden in the suspect's luggage were confiscated by authorities, Sok Heang added.

"The convicted person has the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal within 30 days if he does not accept the court's decision."

The accused could not be reached for comment yesterday, but his defence lawyer, Ou Vuth, characterised the sentence against his client as extreme.

"My client does not accept the court's decision because both his punishment and fine is too heavy. To find justice, he will file his appeal to the Appeal Court soon," Vuth told the Post yesterday, adding that his client had been set up by a friend who had asked him to deliver the luggage to an unidentified man in Phnom Penh.

Major General Sok Chour, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior's anti-drug department could not be reached for comment yesterday.

An outdoor cinema owner has been fined $3,000 for chopping down 20-year-old protected teak trees in Kampong Cham last week.

Toch That, Kampong Cham town governor, said that the cinema owner, Yeng Sarith, had been given permission to trim the trees' branches but he had completely removed three trees from the ground.

"These teak trees were planted in the town by the state 20 years ago, and he cut them down, so the authority has decided to fine him 4 million riel ($1,000) for each tree," he said.

Toch That spoke of the importance of the native teak trees to the community.

"The state had made the effort to plant them all those years ago, because it is a Cambodian tradition to respect these trees, and the next generation of Cambodians should have these trees.

"We fined him 12 million riel and we will use that money to develop the town," he said.

A 21-year-old resident of the area, Chan Pheak, expressed sadness over the loss of the trees.

"As I grew up in Kampong Cham town, I saw these teak trees grow bigger and bigger,"she said.

"We are sorry to hear that they have been cut down because they have been a part of the town for many years."

Cinema owner Yeng Sarith could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith yesterday reiterated that it was near impossible for Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando to expand his station's reach and obtain a TV licence because he owes "millions of riel" in supposed broadcasting tax.

The comments – similar to those Kanharith made over the weekend – came as the prominent radio director submitted a letter to City Hall yesterday outlining plans for daily protests outside the ministry.

"His strategy is to borrow more money.… His radio [operation] owes the ministry hundreds of millions of riel," Kanarith said, adding that the money supposedly owed was tax for broadcasting.

Sonando, however, said no such law exists.

"How can I pay a broadcasting tax of 3 million riel per month if there is no law? I absolutely won't," he said. "[Kanharith] says I owe hundreds of millions of riel. If so, why does he not file a legal complaint?"

Over the weekend, Kanharith described Sonando's efforts to move into TV and expand his radio station's coverage as a ploy to "borrow more money" from the government, according to a Sunday post on the website of state-run news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP).

The same day, Sonando said he had been forced to postpone a demonstration because the authorities had said his request to rally had been "unlawful".

City Hall has not yet responded to a subsequent request from Sonando to hold week-day rallies in his bid to grow his media company.

City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said officials planned to invite Sonando to talk about his demonstration plans.

In a dilapidated building nestled in the heart of Phnom Penh, two slumbering girls lay curled on a mattress in a room shaped like a matchbox. As the door to their room inside a safe house swung open, they remained balled up on their bed, lightly exhaling in unison.

The pair are among eight between the ages of eight and 20 who reside at the Cambodian Women's Development Agency's (CDWA) Safe Shelter, created to protect up to 20 women and girls at
a time from trafficking, rape and gender-based violence.

"If they weren't here, they would probably be at high risk of more violence or sleeping on the streets. Women and girls needs safe havens like this in Cambodia," said Fiona Mann, 26, an advocacy and policy adviser for CWDA.

Pich* was six years old when her father died of hepatitis, leaving her mother with five young children to feed and no money for groceries.

Pich's mother sold her as collateral to a loan shark, who then, in turn, forced her to work in a local market until she was 12.

Now 19, she has just hit her seventh year living in the safe house and hopes to start university next year. When she's not lending an extra hand at the shelter, volunteering for a local youth-oriented NGO is one way she loves to spend her days.

Narrowed options
Abused and trafficked women have limited options in a country where the officials charged with upholding the laws can sometimes be the perpetrators of violence, and sex workers are particularly vulnerable to acts of violence from state authorities in government-run safe houses.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report from 2010 noted: "Women and girls involved in sex work face beatings, rape, sexual harassment, extortion, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced labour, and other cruel and degrading treatment at the hands of police, public park security guards, governmental officials, and those working in the centers and offices run by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSAVY)."

Since the report's release, the government has shuttered three of its rehabilitation centres, but according to a second report released this month by HRW, titled They Treat Us Like Animals, the Kingdom's drug detention centres are still locking up individuals deemed "undesirable" by the government, including sex workers, with a complete lack of due process.

Evidence of abused Cambodian women with no faith in the authorities can be found throughout the capital's safe-houses.

But it's not just women. Sophea*, a 26-year-old gay man, is no stranger to harassment.

Many of his friends, both men and women, have spent unwarranted time in pre-trial detention without legal representation on charges of public incitement.

"We call each other if we get in trouble," Sophea said, adding that he had routinely been picked up and harassed simply for congregating with friends in the Wat Phnom area.

Social discrimination against the LGBQT population in Cambodia is rampant, according to Sophea, a theme that often begins at home.

"Parents and relatives often ask gays and transgender people to leave home. Sometimes, we can't go to school. Many of us rent a large room and live together to support one another," Sophea said, noting that he had lived this way in Poipet and Phnom Penh.

If sex workers or gay people get hustled out of the wat, or if someone is held for too long in designated buildings paid for by the Ministry of Women's Affairs – which ignored repeated requests to comment for this article – they self-organise by calling their friends.

"We can bring food and water for them if they are suspected sex workers and being held" for various stretches of time, Sophea said.

The community is also uniquely vulnerable to sexual crimes.

A UN-backed study released this September found one in five Cambodian men have committed rape, but more than 44 per cent of them have never faced any legal consequences.

The same study revealed that in Cambodia gang rape has the second-highest prevalence in the region.

Bauk, a Khmer word meaning "plus" in the context of the Kingdom's sex industry, often involves a man purchasing a sex worker who is then passed among a group of friends, according to male and female sex workers interviewed for this article.

Part of the problem in cracking down on such crimes is that trafficking and sex work are rarely classified separately in Cambodia – making it difficult for sex workers to advocate for their rights.

Cheryl Overs, a researcher and human rights activist from Melbourne who specialises in HIV prevention and care programs for male, female and transgender sex workers in developing countries, has linked that joint categorisation to a lack of protection for workers.

"The important story in Cambodia is the conflation of sexual exploitation and sex work that has led to the elimination of the term and the concept 'sex worker' and ensured that sex workers have no voice at all in Cambodia," Overs wrote in an email in November.

By pairing sexual exploitation and sex work, essentially invalidating sex work as a viable means of earning money, many argue that everyone becomes a "victim," she explained.

That attitude can often lead to attacking the surface symptoms rather than the root problems, she said. So while a press-friendly "brothel bust" may save one or two people living in hopeless conditions, the endemic reasons women and children end up in those situations in the first place are largely ignored.

The Kingdom's implementation of the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation (LHTSE) in 2008 renders all forms of prostitution illegal.

A downside of the law was that it had driven the sex industry underground, making sex workers more vulnerable to abuse, Overs said.

Programs launched in the wake of the law's passage have also come under attack for not delivering what was intended.

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Enter the unions
With their work often conflated with trafficking, and sexual crimes against women increasingly widespread, some sex workers have sought protection by unionising.

CWDA – which hosts the shelter that is home to Pich and seven others – doubles as the parent organisation of the Cambodian Prostitutes Union (CPU).

The CPU was formed to protect the occupational health and safety of entertainment workers, including "women who sell sex directly and indirect sex workers who work in massage parlours, beer gardens and karaoke bars," according to CWDA's last annual report.

Women with little to no cash can still become members of the CPU, because the union charges no membership fee, says Keo Sichan, the program coordinator of the group's Women's Health and HIV/AIDS Program.

While they aren't eligible to live in the safe house, which is reserved for those in danger of trafficking or violence, entertainment workers – including those living with HIV/AIDS in Daun Penh, Russey Keo and Tuol Kork districts – are provided education about safe working practices and the law, according to Sichan.

And the CPU is not alone.
In 2000, five NGOs helped the Kingdom's sex workers establish a collective of women working in the sex industry, known as the Women's Network for Unity (WNU).

Today, membership includes more than 6,000 people across seven provinces, according to Malis*, a member and former president. This figure, however, has not been independently verified.

While local NGOs were key to the establishment of the union, today, it is self-governed because of members' intimate knowledge of the working conditions sex workers confront day to day.

"We are the ones experiencing domestic violence and rape, so we want to run the organisation ourselves," she said.

Malis, who served as president for three years, joined the collective in 2001 after an NGO worker recruited her from a massage parlour in Svay Pak commune, an area notorious for brothels. Today, she earns about $15 a day plying for her own customers on the street.

"We must help one another," she said. "Teaching sex workers about where they can go if they are hurt is one way we try and do that."

Educating WNU members about sexual health and legal rights is another avenue the collective uses to alleviate the dangers sex workers face.

Each sub-section of the union has an elected representative that serves for three years – transgender sex workers and gay and lesbian sex workers are all represented by their own elected leader who represents their interests during biannual meetings.

The WNU charges a nominal membership fee, used to offset healthcare costs if workers are hurt on the job. If a member is in need of a blood test for HIV/AIDS, needs medical attention or an abortion, the union helps facilitate access to these services at the Japanese and Khmer-Soviet Friendship hospitals, Malis said.

"If we're concerned a member has HIV/AIDS, we send them to RHAC, and if they want an abortion, we send them to Marie Stopes," she said, adding that an abortion costs around $30 at Marie Stopes Cambodia [MSI] but members of the organisation only have to pay $7-$10.

(Stefanie Wallach, country director for MSI Cambodia, said that while she was unaware of any special relationship between the organisation and the WNU, the price of medical care was at the discretion of each centre director based on an individual's needs, and it was not policy to give discounts to sex workers or their unions.)

Mara* represents the WNU's transgender sex workers, of which she says there are more than 100 members in eight provinces, and began working in the sex industry in 1993 to help her mother provide for her two young nieces – her family has no idea that the money used to buy their food is earned on the streets.

Dressing like a woman comes at a cost when Mara's customers discover she has male genitalia.

Her face betrayed emotion as she explained how angry and drunk customers often beat her after discovering what she looks like naked. Still, despite the dangers, living without that income was an even more frightening prospect.

"Before I was a sex worker, I used to sell oranges and their juice for about 500 riel near Independence Monument. But things are different now. Everything costs so much."

*The names of interviewees have been changed to protect their identities.