CHRC Chief Raises Migrant Worker Abuses With Visiting Rights Advocate

PHNOM PENH — October 24, 2026: H.E. Keo Remy, President of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee, raised allegations of discrimination, threats, violence and sexual assault against Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand during a meeting with a visiting human rights advocate on 22 October, while pressing the case of more than 20,000 displaced Cambodians still unable to return home.

The CHRC said H.E. Keo Remy, who is also Minister attached to the Prime Minister, cited various forms of threats and violence against Cambodian migrant workers living and working in Thailand, and the alleged rape of a Cambodian female migrant worker by Thai military personnel while she was travelling back to Cambodia. Mr. Phil Robertson, Director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, said he had been following developments and had received information concerning the discrimination and the reported assault case.

On the border, H.E. Keo Remy said that despite the ceasefire agreement of 27 December 2025, more than 20,000 displaced Cambodians remained unable to return to their homes — a situation he described as a serious human rights violation by the Thai military and an attempt to create a fait accompli on the ground. He thanked Mr. Robertson for previously calling for the release of Cambodian soldiers detained by the Thai military.


Mr. Robertson expressed regret over human rights issues arising during the Cambodia–Thailand border conflict and voiced support for statements by Thomas Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, concerning displaced Cambodians.

The meeting at CHRC headquarters also covered Cambodia's domestic record. H.E. Keo Remy pointed to vocational and technical training for about 490,000 young people from poor and vulnerable families and 8,149 inmates, health coverage growing from roughly 4.7 million people in 2023 to 8.5 million in 2026, and life expectancy rising from about 50 years in 2000 to 71 in 2026. He said poverty had fallen from 36.7 percent in 2014 to an estimated 16.6–17.8 percent, with a 6 percent target for 2030, and that minimum wage increases had supported labour rights.

Mr. Robertson stressed the value of creating a national human rights institution and offered recommendations on fundamental freedoms, including for LGBTQ+ people. H.E. Keo Remy cited Cambodian-French work on a draft resolution, "Towards Universal Decriminalisation of Homosexuality," as evidence of progress against discrimination.

Source: Ministry of Information, Kingdom of Cambodia
Published: 22 October 2026


Reported by The Khmer Daily Network