Govt freezes marriage to SKoreans

Mom Kunthear and Will Baxter

Phnom Penh Post

CAMBODIA has temporarily banned marriages between local women and South Korean men after officials broke up a human trafficking ring designed to facilitate such unions, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Koy Kuong said a woman had been convicted on March 3 of recruiting 25 girls from rural areas and arranging for them to be married off to South Korean men for a US$100 fee.

Accepting a commission to facilitate a marriage is illegal, he said, adding that the convicted marriage broker is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence, and that the South Korean embassy in Phnom Penh had been notified on March 5 of the temporary marriage ban.

The ban will eventually be lifted, though not before the government puts in place an effective screening mechanism to prevent cases of trafficking, Koy Kuong said.

John McGeoghan, project coordinator for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said the temporary ban was a positive step.
“It’s good to see the Cambodian government is taking this issue seriously,” he said.

McGeoghan added that it is important to raise awareness among women looking to marry and move to countries such as South Korea about what life there will really be like.

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