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CAMBODIA: Garment workers resume nightshifts after assurance

PHNOM PENH:  Cambodian garment factory employees were scared by the rumours of a syndicate involved in human organ transplant trade is targeting them. 

After assurances by unions and police that this is just a rumour the workers have returned back to work in nightshifts.

Cambodia employs about 300,000 garment factory workers, many of whom are young female migrants from small rural villages to the city.

The story of powerful men driving cars with tinted windows and abducting garment workers to harvest their corneas and kidneys for rich international clients was doing the rounds since late last week.

The Interior Ministry was concerned enough to issue a press release denouncing the story as a lie and saying a full investigation had found no evidence to support it.

Interior Ministry Criminal Police chief Mok Chito said that police were now on the lookout for the people who began the false tale, which threw the country's garment industry into turmoil when it spread through the factories earlier this week.

He said the rumour was proving hard to pin down because it had apparently been spread by word of mouth, unlike the previous ones, which were spread through SMS text messaging and can be traced easily.

"It was the plan of a group of people who wanted to cause turbulence and hooked into the workers' minds, but it did not succeed because the workers are now aware of the facts" Chito said.

"Cambodia is the easiest place for a rumour to get out of control," he said.

Chea Mony, the president of the Free Trade Union Workers of Cambodia, said the story had caused up to 20 per cent of garment workers on night shifts to stay at home out of fear for their lives.

"This affects the Cambodian economy and businesses might be afraid to invest if they see this sort of panic and how if affects production," Mony said.

Nightshift garment workers had previously earned about 100 dollars a month as opposed to around 50 dollars a month earned by their day shift counterparts, but the amendment cut that difference to 30 per cent more for nightshift workers.

Police said they have received reports of motorbike taxi drivers spreading the  rumour but haven’t made any arrests so far.

The garment industry is Cambodia's primary source of foreign trade and one of the national economy's most important sectors.

Source: Agencies • News Courtesy: BharatTextile.com