Malaysian Body Opens First File on Cambodian Deaths

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia has for the first time agreed to open an inquiry into the death of a Cambodian maid, opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua said yesterday, calling the investigation a “positive sign.” Ms Sochua said that while she had in the past sent several letters to the Human Rights Commission asking them to investigate some of the nine maid deaths that have reportedly occurred this year, this was the first time that the commission had agreed to launch an investigation. “We have come a long way,” Ms. Sochua said, adding that she would now go back to her previous letters and request that the Commission open files on “ two cases of so-called suicide” of Cambodian maids.
The case the commission has agreed to investigate concerns 18-year-old Pov Nich, who died on Oct  22 from what Human Manpower – the Cambodian recruitment agency that had sent her to Malaysia just two months before – described as an overdose of medication. In a letter to Ms. Sochua, Ameer Hamzah, principle assistant secretary of the Human Rights Commission’s complaints and inquiries working group, confirmed that an investigation into Ms. Nich’s death would be carried out. “I wish to inform you that a file has been opened and an officer, Mr Shahizad [Sulaiman], has been assigned to take this case,” the letter read. In October, Ms. Sochua returned from a trip to Kuala Lumpur saying that Cambodian Embassy officials there had informed her that a total of nine Cambodian maids had died in Malaysia so far this year – at least five deaths more than previously reported. Yesterday, Ms. Sochuasaid she had sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking for a Cambodian investigation into all these cases, as the details surrounding the deaths of the maids remained unknown. Following the spate of scandals surrounding abuse of maids in Malaysia, and the illegal activities of the recruitment agencies that send them there, Prime Minister Hun Sen in October ordered a ban on the sending of maids to the country.