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Resettlement

     (i)       Introduction

Development has been underway in many dimensions in Cambodia particularly in infrastructure, with State-assisted funding from the Royal Government of Cambodia, loans from multilateral and bilateral development banks, funding agencies and many other private sources. While development projects bring lots of benefits to the public, they also cause several negative effects to the people too - for instance, for some projects, thousands of families are forced to resettle temporally or permanently. According to a major development project survey, 3,198 families are affected by the Vietnam-Takeo electrical cable connection project. In the same manner, thousands of other people are affected by road rehabilitation, such as National Roads no.1, no.2, no.4, no.5, no.6, no.7, no.56, and no.68, other road refurbishments in the city; and other development projects that involve resettlement such as sewage canal rehabilitation, rehabilitation of dams to prevent flooding and irrigation projects.

A survey conducted by non-governmental organizations working with urban poor communities show that in Phnom Penh and in its outer Khans there are 62,249 households in 569 areas, which are classified as poor communities.  Most of them face eviction by development projects and investments; and the most at risk are those who live on public land.

During the last 2-3 years, resettlement and eviction have been sharply increasing. The affected people became poorer and poorer due to the fact that the compensation was not equivalent to the land and housing they lost. In addition they had to spend a lot of money for resettlement and other basic expenses such as transportation, traveling and other conciliatory expenses for public services.

  (ii)          Key Issues

The projects requiring resettlement are often implemented without compliance to clear procedure. This leads to forced eviction by local authorities without compensation or appropriate support to the evicted people.  

In addition to forced expulsion, affected people face with serious consequences and losses such as:

The major issues that cause serious relocation problems are the lack of a resettlement policy and legislation to protect affected people against development projects, such as a sub-decree on “Resettlement”. Moreover, there is a lack of enforcement of existing legal safeguards, such as the Constitution, the Land Law, the International Convention on Economic Social and Culture Rights, etc.

  (iii)          Recommendations

The recommendations on resettlement issues in Cambodia are as follows:

·         The government of Cambodia should approve the “National Resettlement Policy” as a sub-decree and then introduce it for implementation with standards that apply to all projects. At the same time, existing laws should be enforced to ensure transparency and the rights of affected people.

·         The government should prepare and implement land use and relocation plans. In Cambodia, planning should include the number of affected people and the scope of losses recognized in the policies and legal safeguards such as compensation with regard to property, the cost of dismantling of existing houses and rebuilding in a new location, the restoration of livelihoods, environmental protection, responsibility for the time delay in obtaining new land, and other measures related to relocation and the consultation mechanism with affected people.

·         The affected people and other stakeholders should be informed of all projects that require resettlement and they should be provided with access to consultation on development projects, their resettlement and compensation scheme.

·         The public and the affected people should be informed of all guidelines issued by the project implementation unit regarding public participation procedures from project planning to the end of the project. All procedures should be publicized and affected people should be informed of the compensation scheme.

·         The government should plan in advance the infrastructure and public services required to support the basic needs of the people in the relocation site such as water, electricity, road, school, market and health center and should monitor the changes of people’s livelihood and well-being of the resettled people.

·         To reduce poverty, the government should avoid resettlement wherever possible.

·         There should be programs in new relocation site such as job creation, vocational training, small agriculture, and small credit scheme for income generation.

·         Inter-ministerial committees should be established to facilitate planning and implementation of relocation projects. All relevant institutions should be involved and coordinate with one another during project implementation.

·         Short, medium or long-term human resources development is necessary for involved officials to strengthen capacity in the relocation field.

·         Donor countries should compel the Government to display transparency and accountability in resettlement issues. Donors should play an important role as external monitors for resettlement activities related to their projects. 

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For more information and the issues raised in this paper, please contact Resettlement Action Network, Email: leakhana@ngoforum.org.kh