Activists in Cambodia fear rising surveillance from China’s Belt and Road Initiative
- A union leader and other Cambodian rights activists say their every move online and offline is tracked by software, cameras and drones
- China has installed more than 1,000 CCTV cameras in Phnom Penh as part of a new nationwide surveillance system, local media said
The drones were hard to avoid: they buzzed low over the crowd of protesters holding banners and shouting slogans outside the NagaWorld casino in the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh, then hovered above each of the speakers as they called for justice.
As hundreds of workers went on strike outside the glass and chrome towers of the firm’s hotel and casino complex, demanding the reinstatement of nearly 400 employees who were laid off last year, armed riot police and surveillance cameras kept watch.
“We knew we were being recorded, but we couldn’t do anything, so we would wave at the drones,” said Chhim Sithar, 34, a union leader who was arrested at the January protest along with more than a dozen others, and held in jail for nine weeks.
Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp said the strike that began in December was illegal, and that the lay-offs were a “mutual separation plan” to cut costs during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Municipal police have said the workers’ strike was illegal and a threat to public order and safety. Police charged some protesters with “incitement to cause serious chaos to social security”.
Chhim Sithar and other Cambodian rights activists say they are under constant surveillance, their every move online and offline tracked by software, cameras and drones.