Laos: 371 families displaced by Laos-China railway project still await full compensation after three years
"3 years on, displaced families await compensation for Lao-China Railway project" 8 December 2024
At least 371 families displaced by the construction of the Laos-China Railway project, completed three years ago, have yet to receive full compensation after refusing to accept what they say are inadequate offers from the Lao government...
Khamphan Phommathat, the president of Laos' State Inspection Authority, confirmed that the 371 families remain uncompensated at a meeting of the Lao National Assembly last week...
“The reason why the issue remains unsolved is because the government and affected families still cannot agree on the calculation of a unit price for their houses, farmland, and trees lost to the project, while in other cases, some families simply can’t accept the unit price offered by the government,”...
the project has been criticized for displacing several thousand farmers from their land. Many have faced long delays in getting reimbursement for their lost property, as others have been shortchanged in the payments they did receive...
Speaking to RFA, an official who is involved in compensation negotiations said that the primary reason for the delay is because the government is low-balling residents...Another official working on the compensation issue, who also declined to be named, echoed the assessment that the government’s offering is too low...