Cambodia’s construction industry is booming – but it’s built on ‘blood bricks’ and modern slavery
Cambodia is one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, but inequality remains stark – two-bedroom flats in the capital sell for US$260,000 and up, more than 200 years’ wages for the average Cambodian
Cambodia’s construction boom is built in part with “blood bricks” manufactured by modern-day slaves, including children, researchers said on Tuesday.
Poverty fuelled partly by climate change has pushed tens of thousands of Cambodian families into bonded labour in the booming capital, according to a report by Britain’s government and the Economic and Social Research Council.
“Tens of thousands of debt-bonded families in Cambodia extract, mould and fire clay in hazardous conditions to meet Phnom Penh’s insatiable appetite for bricks,” the authors said. “Kiln owners repay farmers’ debts and offer a consolidated loan. In return, farmers and their families are compelled to enter into debt bondage with the kiln owner until the loan is repaid.”
Families surveyed had agreed to pay back loans of between US$100 and US$4,000. The average was US$712 – a fortune in a country where the average annual income is US$1,230, according to the World Bank.
Those pushed into debt bondage often earned far less than the average, with climate change hitting harvests and pushing farming families into debt.
