The streets of Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh are a rush of tuctucs and motorbikes where every man and his dog is on the move. Street stalls line the roads from early morning to late night selling packets of things in bright colours under one strip light bulb. It smells of petrol, dust and heat.
One morning I went with a BBC news team at 6.30am to the Vattanac Industrial Park, where lots of large factories supplying all the big high street names are located. The scene was electric. Open top transport trucks were arriving every minute with 50 or so workers standing crammed in like sardines, who had be bused in from the provinces. Flooding into the park were hundreds if not thousands of workers all walking in the same direction, a bit like when you suddenly find yourself in a crowd of people coming out of a football match where the team has lost. Small stalls were selling rice and soup, fruit and snacks. I was struck at how young most of the workers were – just teenagers. You sometimes have a poverty image of workers wearing plain clothes and being sad, but these girls had phones and wore teeshirts with 'angry birds' and 'hello kitty' on them. Just normal Asian teenagers.
We went to visit a worker housing area with Hoeurg from the Women's Information Centre network WIC. She showed us the long lines of tin roofed, single room housing districts. One worker at her door let us come inside to see a space 4x4m with a mezzanine wooden level reached by a ladder. Mats and belongings were stowed away neatly in corners and a stove sat near the entrance. 10 people slept in this small space we were told. Outside each 'house' was a large urn filled with stagnant water. This was filled up by a man with a hose every few days in exchange for 1500 riel, and was the only water available for drinking and washing. Two toilets were in a block at the end of the row of houses, shared by over 20 properties.
In a tin roof hut nearby we met with a group of workers on their lunch breaks. We bought them coconuts and sat in a circle to share stories. They spoke about workers fainting from tiredness, short term contracts and the mass wage strikes which have taken place in Phnom Penh in recent months. The girls sent home money to support their families in the provinces, and said that their wages weren't enough.
On visiting I was expecting to feel sorry for workers, but I came away realising that these girls aren't victims. They are normal Asian teenagers, trying to make their way in the world. It is the system they are in that means they live in these shanty huts, and something needs to be done to address this.
