Cambodia asked to resolve arrest of Filipino workers

THE Philippine government asked Cambodia to resolve a “misunderstanding” involving the arrest of Filipino workers there whose job agency had lost its license.

“Tell Cambodia our continuing diplomatic relations will depend entirely on the swift outcome of this non-problem. And I mean it,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. said in a social media post on Sunday.

Mr. Locsin said Philippine officials are in Siem Reap “gathering the loose ends.” The detained Filipinos had been allowed to be sent home, he said at the weekend.

“The Filipinos detained in Siem Reap on their way home” he said. “It’s what we do best: bring ‘em back.”

Meanwhile, the top Philippine diplomat raised concern about the trafficking of two Filipinos in Morocco who had been repatriated through the Philippine Embassy in Libya.

“This happens because government agencies in cahoots with illegal recruiters prevent reform measures offered by host governments in Arab lands who don’t want it anymore than we do,” Mr. Locsin said in a social media post on Saturday.

“The unregulated environment offers P80,000 to P 250,000 per trafficked person,” he said. — Charmaine A. Tadalan