Right to Relief

Chi Kor Kraom Land Community has residents from six different villages across two districts in Koh Kong province. These villages used to rely on plentiful catches of fish and farmland to grow crops for sustenance and sale. Fish catches have fallen in recent years and weather changes have disrupted agricultural habits, severely affecting livelihoods. More than 60% of households now rely on at least one family member to migrate to work in Thailand or another province.

In 2006, Koh Kong Sugar, which is linked to Senator Ly Yong Phat, began clearing community members’ farms and homes, some of which already had crops planted. The loss of land led to a dramatic drop in incomes, children being pulled out of school, increased levels of domestic violence, and lasting psychological effects. After deciding to advocate as a community in 2007, they continuously campaigned and protested until 2017, when the company agreed to provide $2,500 per person, and, in 2018, granted 3 hectares of land to each household. This land needed to be cleared, requiring additional money. More than a dozen villagers faced another a land dispute in 2009 with tycoon Heng Huy. Villagers worry about their tenure security as they have not yet been granted hard titles for their homes.

More than 80% of families are estimated to have MFI debts, with many also holding loans from private, informal lenders. At least half of the households have sold land to repay their microfinance debts. This land was given to the villagers as part of a compensation package to resolve the land dispute. The “overwhelming” amount of debt has resulted in villagers being overworked, labouring through sickness without rest. They had to reduce their food intake to save for repayments, or borrow more money to repay old debts. Villagers said the “fear” created by credit officers in the community meant that children as young as 12 were pulled out of school and made to work to help their families repay MFI debts.

• Borrowers were threatened by COs that they would sell borrower's land for below-market prices if they were unable to repay their MFI loans.
• In one case, a borrower’s land title was returned more than one full month after they had repaid their loan, and the borrower was encouraged to take another loan from that MFI during that month.

• Some community members were busy advocating on behalf of their land rights and could not afford to repay their loans, and many went to borrow more money to repay.
• Borrowers reported cutting their food budgets in half to help repay debts.
• Most of the borrowers in the community are women, and many of their livelihoods are worse than before they borrowed from MFIs.
• MFI debts have caused strain in the community and families have split up, in part due to stress from MFI loans. This especially affects women, who are usually the official borrower in the family.

The Right to Relief

Microloan providers and their international investors, including many of Europe’s and the United States’ largest development banks, have a moral obligation to address human rights abuses and provide proper remedy and redress. Cambodian borrowers must have the right to relief, or else they will continue to face debt-driven hunger, child labour, migration, coerced land sales, and many other human rights abuses raised as part of this project.

Research Background

Who We Are

Equitable Cambodia (EC) and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) are human rights NGOs registered in Cambodia. Both organisations are dedicated to amplifying the voices of grassroots communities and highlighting human rights abuses perpetrated by private and public actors in Cambodia.

What We Did

This project is based on the principles of community-based research, where community members play an active role in producing knowledge and act as co-researchers. Information was gathered from both focus-group discussions with community members as well as individual interviews. All the information in this report comes from discussions with community members and was verified with community representatives. This project is not meant as the only true source of information about microloans, but rather is meant to accurately reflect the lived experiences of community members. Many of these issues have been raised before in previous reports issued by human rights NGOs in Cambodia.

Why We Did It

Many Cambodians are drowning in microloan debt, which is leading to drastic and serious human rights violations across the country, and many people are suffering in silence. To quote one community representative who participated in this project: “I’m happy that our sadness is finally being publicised. We have kept it hidden for so long. The way [the MFIs] act is the opposite of the way they speak. Debt is the biggest problem faced by communities across the country.”

Publications