Out of sight, out of mind? Child domestic workers and patterns of trafficking in Cambodia

What are the processes and mechanisms of trafficking within Cambodia for the two target groups, Commercially Sexually Exploited Women and Girls (CSEWGs) and child domestic workers (CDWs)? This study looks at how the ‘pull’ factors in different provinces lead to migration and trafficking and seeks to understand how process of migration could constitute trafficking.

The study is based on research in three provinces in Cambodia – Koh Kong, Kampong Som and Siem Reap. It looks at specific indicators of trafficking, including recruitment, levels of deception involved in recruitment, the use of recruiters and paths of migration, levels of payment and debt, freedom of movement, age of entry into domestic work, work hours and patterns of abuse in the work location.

Key findings include:

• in terms of socio-demographic profile, the vast majority of CDWs are female (89%)
• CDWs are most often rural to urban migrants; the key decision makers in this pattern of migration are often the child's parents, with little evidence that the children are consulted prior to their entry into domestic work
• the paths of migration often occur through the house owners' links to specific rural communities where they are known and trusted; both house owners and CDWs and their families appeared to prefer the use of kinship networks to find work, and a sizeable proportion (42%) were related to the house owner
• CDWs are highly mobile, with 39% having previously worked as a domestic worker
• in terms of payments and benefits, only 64% of CDWs are paid for the work that they do every day
• the overwhelming majority of CDWs have no formal contract, nor have they been monitored by the local authorities, though the Labour Office is supposed to monitor all child workers
• a strong link between migration into domestic work and into commercial sexual exploitation is identified
• several social groups within the broad category of 'child domestic workers' were identified as being of strong relevance to not only trafficking, but also child labour exploitation and abuse.