Disputes - international:
Cambodia is concerned about Laos' extensive upstream dam construction; Cambodia and Thailand dispute sections of boundary; in 2011 Thailand and Cambodia resorted to arms in the dispute over the location of the boundary on the precipice surmounted by Preah Vihear Temple ruins, awarded to Cambodia by ICJ decision in 1962 and part of a UN World Heritage site; Cambodia accuses Vietnam of a wide variety of illicit cross-border activities; progress on a joint development area with Vietnam is hampered by an unresolved dispute over sovereignty of offshore islands
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Cambodia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking; Cambodian men, women, and children migrate to countries within the region and, increasingly, the Middle East for legitimate work but are subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, or forced labor in fishing, agriculture, construction, and factories; Cambodian men recruited to work on Thai-owned fishing vessels are subsequently subjected to forced labor in international waters and are kept at sea for years; poor Cambodian children are vulnerable and, often with the families’ complicity, are subject to forced labor, including domestic servitude and forced begging, in Thailand and Vietnam; Cambodian and ethnic Vietnamese women and girls are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers and tourist spots for sexual exploitation; Cambodian men are the main exploiters of child prostitutes, but men from other Asian countries, and the West travel to Cambodia for child sex tourism
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List – Cambodia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; authorities made modest progress in prosecutions and convictions of traffickers in 2014 but did not provide comprehensive data; endemic corruption continued to impede law enforcement efforts, and no complicit officials were prosecuted or convicted; the government sustained efforts to identify victims and refer them to NGOs for care, but victim protection remained inadequate, particularly for assisting male victims and victims identified abroad; a new national action plan was adopted, but guidelines for victim identification and guidance on undercover investigation techniques are still pending after several years (2015)
Illicit drugs:
narcotics-related corruption reportedly involving some in the government, military, and police; limited methamphetamine production; vulnerable to money laundering due to its cash-based economy and porous borders