https://www.scmp.com/rss/503726/feed Danielle Keeton-Olsen is a freelance journalist based in Phnom Penh, covering environment, business and labour issues in Cambodia and beyond. Her work has also appeared in VOD English, BBC, Mongabay and Forbes Asia among others. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Danielle Keeton-Olsen,Meng Kroypunlok Danielle Keeton-Olsen,Meng Kroypunlok From Cambodian cassava being blocked for sale in Thailand to a ban on Thai fuel flowing the other way, a border spat stoked by nationalists on both sides has left more than 1 million Cambodians working in Thailand exposed to a damaging fallout. Over 5,000 Cambodian workers returned each day last week, fearing border closures and a growing nationalist enmity inside Thailand, Cambodian officials have said. On Monday, Hun Manet, Cambodia’s prime minister and the scion of the Hun Sen dynasty, which... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3315662/cambodian-workers-thailand-caught-crossfire-nationalist-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3315662/cambodian-workers-thailand-caught-crossfire-nationalist-war?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Jun 2025 09:53:30 +0000 Cambodia’s continued crackdowns in Sihanoukville show the coastal “sin city” is still likely powered by the scam industry, observers said, despite mounting pressure on the government to eradicate the predominantly Chinese crime gangs that have made billions of dollars from cyber fraud. During the latest raid March 9-10, officials arrested more than 450 people who were allegedly part of illegal online gambling and “pig-butchering” scam businesses thriving behind the fronts of authorised... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3255797/cambodia-urged-target-key-figures-chinese-scam-gangs-defy-crackdowns-sin-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3255797/cambodia-urged-target-key-figures-chinese-scam-gangs-defy-crackdowns-sin-city?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Mar 2024 08:10:09 +0000 Danielle Keeton-Olsen Danielle Keeton-Olsen Scouring digital currency exchanges for trends, Singapore-based cryptocurrency analyst Patrick Tan began to peer into an underground world of payments and wallets where Asia’s scammers, drug dealers, hackers and other criminals clean their illicit earnings. The general counsel at Singapore-based crypto intelligence firm ChainArgos’ initial brief was to help investors looking for smart digital bets to cut through the influencer-led hype around cryptocurrencies. But as his analysis deepened, he... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3253865/how-crypto-investigators-uncover-scammers-blockchain-billions-scale-money-laundering-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3253865/how-crypto-investigators-uncover-scammers-blockchain-billions-scale-money-laundering-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Mar 2024 04:43:19 +0000 Danielle Keeton-Olsen Danielle Keeton-Olsen At any moment in the border towns of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, a bet is being laid in person, online or over the phone. Win or lose, it’s odds-on that someone at the table is washing dirty money, United Nations security experts say. And in Asia’s thriving underground economy, there are billions of dollars needing to be cleaned, from the Mekong’s drug gangs, human trafficking networks to the world-dominating cyber scams. All of those create pools of illegally juiced profits which need to be... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3249121/inside-southeast-asias-casinoland-underground-bank-centre-transnational-crime?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3249121/inside-southeast-asias-casinoland-underground-bank-centre-transnational-crime?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jan 2024 06:30:09 +0000 Danielle Keeton-Olsen Danielle Keeton-Olsen In pockets of Phnom Penh frequented by Chinese expatriates, the scrolling neon signs at 24-hour currency exchanges offer to trade yuan for Tether, the cryptocurrency of choice for moving money in and out of China, gambling and cashing out the gains of Southeast Asia’s cyber scams. Like all cryptocurrencies, Tether (or USDT) – a so-called stablecoin because its value is tied to the US dollar – is officially banned for trade in Cambodia. Yet security experts say it has fast become an integral part... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3245224/cambodias-underground-crypto-economy-tether-becomes-coin-choice-chinese-linked-activities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3245224/cambodias-underground-crypto-economy-tether-becomes-coin-choice-chinese-linked-activities?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Dec 2023 03:30:13 +0000 After a walkover election widely pilloried outside Cambodia for being neither free nor fair, Prime Minister Hun Sen is poised to hand power to his eldest son Hun Manet, but observers warn 38 years of one-man rule may not fall neatly into his successor’s lap. The 70-year-old leader said in a speech on Wednesday that he would step down as prime minister. “Hun Manet...will become the prime minister in the coming weeks,” he said, adding the new premier will be appointed on August 10. “I will... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3228936/cambodians-expect-more-same-hun-sens-son-set-take-power-we-have-no-hope?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3228936/cambodians-expect-more-same-hun-sens-son-set-take-power-we-have-no-hope?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Jul 2023 04:00:24 +0000 Cambodia’s Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, is heading for another unanimous victory via an electoral landslide later this month, after he banned the opposition and dismantled much of the free media. But he will also contest the polls without his favoured communication tool Facebook, after he quit the platform on which he had 14 million followers. A former Khmer Rouge commander who switched sides towards the end of the brutal regime and has led the country since 1985, Hun Sen... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3227686/cambodias-hun-sen-poised-extend-38-year-rule-without-his-favoured-platform-facebook?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3227686/cambodias-hun-sen-poised-extend-38-year-rule-without-his-favoured-platform-facebook?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Jul 2023 06:00:19 +0000 As Southeast Asia’s finest athletes descend on Phnom Penh for the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), Thai and Cambodian keyboard warriors are duking it out online over who owns the origin story to the Mekong region’s rich history of boxing. Both Kun Khmer and Muay Thai – boxing disciplines from Cambodia and Thailand, respectively – use fists, elbows and legs, and integrally evoke ancient lore, imagery and a deep sense of national pride in countries that share hundreds of kilometres of border and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3219553/ready-set-fight-thailand-cambodia-spar-stake-claim-mekong-boxing-sea-games?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3219553/ready-set-fight-thailand-cambodia-spar-stake-claim-mekong-boxing-sea-games?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 May 2023 06:00:17 +0000 Cambodian police have detained more than two dozen current and former employees of the country’s largest casino, run by a Hong Kong firm, amid the workers’ 19-day strike to protest against mass lay-offs and alleged labour law violations last year. Hundreds of workers at NagaWorld, a casino that is part of the sprawling leisure complex in the Cambodian capital owned by NagaCorp Ltd, have been on strike since December 18. They are calling for the reinstatement of 365 employees who were laid off... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3162210/cambodian-police-crack-down-casino-workers-after-lay-negotiations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3162210/cambodian-police-crack-down-casino-workers-after-lay-negotiations?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Jan 2022 07:27:54 +0000 Vann Thoeurn, his wife and their teenage son had been surviving on a construction site in Thailand for months despite having no work or salary. They had been working for six years on different developments in Bangkok but when work slowed after the outbreak of Covid-19, they made the decision to leave, spending their savings on bus tickets back to Cambodia, aiming to return to their family in Kampong Cham province. Thoeurn, 41, recalls his wife experiencing breathing problems days before their... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3143729/cambodian-workers-flee-thailands-coronavirus-surge-exodus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3143729/cambodian-workers-flee-thailands-coronavirus-surge-exodus?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Aug 2021 01:15:19 +0000 Conservationists have warned of the growing number of exotic animals being kept as pets in Cambodia’s capital, after a 18-month-old lion was seized from a Chinese national’s Phnom Penh villa last week. The 70kg male was removed by Forestry Administration officials on June 27 from a property in the city’s Boeng Keng Kang district – where a square metre of land can cost as much as US$5,500, according to real estate firm CBRE. Authorities said they were alerted to the lion’s existence after seeing... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3139756/chinese-nationals-tiktok-lion-spotlights-cambodias?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3139756/chinese-nationals-tiktok-lion-spotlights-cambodias?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jul 2021 09:00:25 +0000 When Reoun Sreyneang received notice she would be let go from her job tending hotel rooms for US$300 a month at Phnom Penh’s gold-tinted NagaWorld casino complex, she decided to accept the news without a fight. “I don’t believe I can win against the company that has millions of dollars in its pocket. They will always win,” said the hospitality worker. Still, she admitted she was shocked that NagaWorld, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed firm NagaCorp that has an exclusive licence to run a casino... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3135645/cambodian-workers-nagaworld-casino-vexed-over-lay-offs-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3135645/cambodian-workers-nagaworld-casino-vexed-over-lay-offs-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:30:14 +0000 A high-profile court case in Cambodia involving a beauty queen and a tycoon last week set social media alight, provoking a heated debate about sexual assault, power and consent. Mean Pich Rita, a second-year university student and a former competitor in Miss Grand Cambodia, was arrested and detained on May 8, accused of stealing an iPhone belonging to Heng Sier, a prominent businessman. Sier, 60, has also accused Pich Rita, 20, of extorting money and stabbing him during an encounter in his car... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3133623/cambodian-beauty-queen-mean-pich-rita-accuses-tycoon-heng-sier?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3133623/cambodian-beauty-queen-mean-pich-rita-accuses-tycoon-heng-sier?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 May 2021 03:15:09 +0000 The Cambodian government’s two-week lockdown to contain a surge of Covid-19 cases in the capital, Phnom Penh, has cut off food supplies for thousands of garment workers, market vendors and others who survive on a day-to-day income. Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the restrictions on April 14, which allowed only people in essential jobs such as delivery, restaurants and food and medical supply factories to work, with families permitted to visit markets three times a week. Days later, the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3131048/cambodia-extended-phnom-penh-coronavirus-lockdown-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3131048/cambodia-extended-phnom-penh-coronavirus-lockdown-leaves?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Apr 2021 02:30:37 +0000 Two months after Cambodia launched its Covid-19 vaccination programme with 1.2 million shots made by China’s Sinopharm and India’s Serum Institute-produced AstraZeneca vaccine, the government on Tuesday said garment factory workers, who number about 800,000 and are mostly female, could sign up to be inoculated. But workers in the industry, which have suffered from fewer orders and disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic and tariffs imposed by the European Union over human rights abuses,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3127328/cambodias-got-coronavirus-vaccines-china-and-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3127328/cambodias-got-coronavirus-vaccines-china-and-india?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Mar 2021 08:00:13 +0000 When Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen complained in February about online sellers posing in “sexy” clothing to stimulate demand for their wares, Ven Rachna – whose low-cut blouses and lingerie photos had made her a successful Facebook entrepreneur – was summoned to her local police station. She was told that her clothing choices had been deemed harmful to Cambodian traditions and was ordered to refrain from sharing any further photos or videos of herself wearing such revealing outfits. A video... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3102943/cambodias-sexy-clothing-ban-could-criminalise-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3102943/cambodias-sexy-clothing-ban-could-criminalise-face?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Sep 2020 03:00:11 +0000 When Cambodia’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen visited Beijing in February, trailing behind him as he shook hands with Foreign Minister Wang Yi was his eldest son, Hun Manet. To discerning eyes, the scene was evidence not only of Hun Sen’s strengthening ties with Beijing – the visit took place despite the widespread suspension of flights to China amid the first wave of coronavirus infections – but also of Manet’s ascendancy as his father’s preferred successor. While other countries have... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3097421/hun-manet-cambodias-leader-waiting-us-military-educated-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3097421/hun-manet-cambodias-leader-waiting-us-military-educated-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Aug 2020 01:00:27 +0000 Cambodia’s relaxed approach to the global spread of the novel coronavirus has taken a dramatic turn, with its number of cases almost tripling from the weekend. Phnom Penh on Wednesday announced there were 37 confirmed cases in the country, up from 12 on Sunday. Most of them are foreign nationals or locals who had recently travelled overseas, with at least 24 having at the end of last month attended a gathering at a Kuala Lumpur mosque, which has been linked to more than 400 cases in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3075860/coronavirus-cambodia-cases-spike-travellers-countries?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3075860/coronavirus-cambodia-cases-spike-travellers-countries?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Mar 2020 01:00:23 +0000 The European Commission voted on Wednesday to partially withdraw Cambodia’s “Everything But Arms” tariff-free trade access to the European Union, after the country failed to improve its tense political and social atmosphere over a year-long investigation period. Exporters will have to pay full tariffs on more than 30 products, including sugar cane, travel goods, and some types of garments and footwear. The brunt of higher duties will be borne by Cambodia’s garment and shoemaking industries,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3050340/cambodias-struggling-garment-workers-feel-pinch-europe-cuts-eba?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3050340/cambodias-struggling-garment-workers-feel-pinch-europe-cuts-eba?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:23 +0000