Cambodia Country Study Working Paper Series No. 44 ... - CDRI

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Depending on the destination and distance from their homes, the cost for migrants to reach
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can cost only USD38 for those who know how to make the trip by land through Thailand.
The most common cost for a migrant to get to Bangkok or elsewhere deep inside Thailand
is USD70–100. This is the fee for organisers to smuggle migrants from Cambodia to
the workplace in Thailand. This fee includes transportation, but migrants need to have
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Thailand that organisers in Thailand (who are Thai) receive extra compensation from the
employer for delivering migrant workers, which can be as much as 2500 baht or about
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Thailand and having a break at home told the study team that they were guided across
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being put into a waiting pick-up truck. They were laid in the truck like logs and covered
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agencies in Phnom Penh go by land via Thailand, which takes two nights and three days,
according to FGD participants and individual migrants.
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Village Destination Number
CDRI
30
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(USD)
Std.
Deviation
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���������� Inside Thailand 2 94 44 63 125
�������� 55 429 275 38 1,370
Krasang Inside Thailand 21 71 43 3 177
�������� 3 649 54 618 711
Along Thai border 78 14 11 3 75
Kork Thnong Inside Thailand 66 52 28 5 88
Along Thai border 1 4 - 4 4
Rumduol Inside Thailand 70 87 39 6 238
Along Thai border 3 52 47 5 100
Siem Peay Inside Thailand 18 69 26 10 113
Along Thai border 108 9 8 4 63
Khnay Inside Thailand 81 102 40 18 236
Along Thai border 4 28 6 25 38
Source: CDRI survey in September and October 2007
Since migrants are generally not from better off households, they are unlikely to have
money at hand to pay for trips to Thailand, especially deeper into Thailand. They tend to
take loans, most of which have interest rates of 4–5 percent per month, according to the
FGDs. The survey found that overall about half took loans, only 8 percent could use their
own savings, and 42 percent used household savings (Table 3.8). Participants in an FGD in