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years. Despite multiple factors leading to street life in Cambodia, poverty and migration
appears to be the overarching reasons for why children/youth end up on the streets.
In this year’s CSCN profile, poverty appears to be a more frequent reason than in the
2008 survey, given the general down turn in the Cambodian economy caused by the
international financial crisis. Regarding migration, unsafe patterns of migration and the
depth of poverty in Cambodia consequently make the children/youth more vulnerable to
trafficking and/or to end up living on the streets. The movement of the Cambodian street
children/youth population is, by and large, concentrated within the country’s borders,
inter-provincial and covers only short-range distances. The exception to this migration
pattern is Phnom Penh, which attracts migrants from all over the country as well as from
neighbouring countries. There appears to be a new group of migrants, forced migrants,
caused by the extensive evictions of poor people carried out, particularly in Phnom
Penh and Sihanoukville.
Once on the streets, the Cambodian children/youth for the most part engage in
scavenging and begging activities as to make a livelihood. Life on the streets generally
impedes high risks and the main problems faced by the Cambodian street children/
youth population are related to Bong Thom, violence and health issues. Surprisingly,
substance abuse appears on a moderate level in the 2009 questionnaire survey, except
for in Phnom Penh where 18.5 percent of the children/youth explain their situation
as a consequence of drug usage. However, this result might be influenced by the
stigma associated with substance abuse, thus affecting the validity of the provided
answers to the question. A growing problem faced by the Cambodian street children/
youth identified in all the 2009 survey locations are the clean-ups commenced by the
Cambodian government placing the street children/youth in either detention centres,
pre-trial detention or prisons.
Compared to the results of last year’s CSCN profile, there has been a general increase in
the percentage of street children/youth enrolled in primary school. Potentially reflecting
the pres-sure placed on the Cambodian Government as to make progress towards
achieving the UN MDG on universal primary education. However, the primary school
enrolment rates of all CSCN locations are below the national average. The CSCN
questionnaire survey results indicate that the main challenge regarding education of
Cambodian street children/youth is to keep them in the school system once enrolled.
The average education completion rate of the children/youth above the age of 6 is only
2.9 years, indicating high drop-out rates considering that the average age of the street
children/youth participating in the questionnaire survey being 14.3 years.
CSCN
118 CSCN Street Children Profile 2009