Furious foreign investment driving land grab scourge
Phnom Penh is waving in investors who buy up massive plots, forcing locals out of their homes and into gruelling, low-paid factory jobs. And as a recent conference on the problem made clear, it's a trend that's spreading throughout the developing world
- Published: 7 Oct 2012 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: Spectrum
Land grabbing has emerged as the biggest blight to afflict Cambodia in recent years. Thousands of villagers have been pushed off their family plots for what they say is too little compensation as big corporations move in with the government's blessing.
GAMBLING ON THE FUTURE: A house in Botum Sakor National Park, Koh Kong province, built for people being displaced by the sale of land to build casinos for Chinese tourists.
There is no shortage of complaints or protests, particularly in the district courts. In Bavet, near the Vietnamese border one woman says her family was chased off their property by politically connected neighbours armed with guns and knives who then turned their land into an access road.
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