"Death toll jumps in Cambodia building collapse", 5 January 2020

At least 36 people were killed and 23 injured after a guesthouse under construction in Cambodia collapsed, trapping workers and their families beneath the rubble, officials said ...

The seven-storey concrete building collapsed … in the coastal town of Kep, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of the capital Phnom Penh, the latest collapse to hit the country's booming construction industry. 

Sou Chhlonh, vice president of Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia (BWTUC), who is in Kep, told … that a combination of lax enforcement of the law, corruption, and workers living on site instead of in separate accommodation contributed to the high number of deaths.

According to the BTWUC's survey of the site, 59 people were living there including children.

"Six to seven children who stayed in the building died," Chhlonh said. "A pregnant woman died, and a baby of maybe between three and seven months died with the mother."

There are an estimated 200,000 construction workers in Cambodia, most of them unskilled, reliant on day wages and without union protection, according to the International Labour Organization…

Kep Governor Ken Satha said that the owners of the building, a Cambodian couple, had been detained for questioning as Prime Minister Hun Sen defended the government response and said that no officials in Kep province would be fired…

Worker Ei Kosal told … that he, his wife and two other women were having a meal on site when the structure collapsed…