"Cambodian Bank Demands ‘Action’ Against NGOs Who Say Workers Need Debt Relief", 02 July 2020

Cambodia’s ACLEDA Bank accused three nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of defamation … and urged the government to “take action” against them after they issued a report calling for debt relief for workers, who are struggling to repay their loans after losing jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

…, Licadho, the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), and the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) issued a joint briefing paper entitled “Worked to Debt,” which said that tens of thousands of garment workers will struggle to repay microfinance debts during work stoppages and factory suspensions caused by the outbreak.

The groups said the situation is “creating a mounting human rights crisis”…

…, ACLEDA issued a statement accusing the groups of trying to “confuse the people who are using banking services and provoking social chaos to exploit donors.” It said the groups were trying to take advantage of companies in the private sector that are working with the government to promote development.

“The report is baseless and was written without conducting a proper study,” the bank said.

“It has affected ACLEDA’s reputation and can be regarded as incitement with an intent to defame the banking and financial sector.”

… Am Sam Ath, deputy director of Licadho’s Human Rights Investigation Team, told … that he had no comment on ACLEDA’s statement, but said his organization issued last month’s briefing paper “because we are concerned about the workers.”

“We did not seek to incite the workers because the information in the paper is already known,” he said...