Airport communities share eviction
The Eviction of the Airport Community is a short documentary directed by Sophea Nget and produced by the human rights group Equitable Cambodia.
Executive director Eang Vuthy said that the aim is to raise awareness among the public and to put pressure on the government. “Our intention is to share the impacts of the airport expansion”, he said, adding: “We have interviewed NGOs and also the government, so we have a few actors to tell the story.”
In 2012, residents of five communities in Por Sen Chey district were handed eviction notices to make way for the expansion of the Phnom Penh International Airport, which is being overseen by the private firm Société Concessionnaire de l’Aéroport. The government has since outsourced environmental impact assessments to the private firm Green Goal.
The Eviction of the Airport Community explores the current situation through a collection of interviews with residents who face eviction.
One of these residents is Phoung Sopheap, 40, who lives with her seven children in Thmor Kol community.
“I will keep protesting as I bought my land legally and I am concerned that I won’t get fair compensation”, explained Sopheap, adding that her children cannot attend school due to financial restraints and instability.
Meas Srey Pov, 44, has lived in the Thmor Kol community since 2011 when she was evicted from Borei Keila.
She is worried for her family’s safety and said that she doesn’t know what will happen to them. “People in my community might face eviction again, and sometimes they will suffer violence. I worry that my village will be destroyed by private companies or the government if nobody helps”, she said.
The affected communities are currently campaigning for compensation. Sia Phearum, director of Housing Rights Task Force, said: “NGOs and the airport authorities are revising the memorandum of understanding.”
However, Chan Soveth, deputy of land and natural resources rights at Adhoc, said that residents are afraid because some families – like that of Srey Pov – have already been evicted from Borei Keila and Boeung Kak communities and are concerned that it will happen again. “They feel upset and insecure,” he said. According to Vuthy, it’s important that the affected communities play as active a role as NGOs, SCA and the government in deciding on appropriate compensation and resettlement. “Hopefully all parties working together can come up with a good solution”, he said. Vuthy said that it was the residents who decided that they wanted to show the film publicly. “The team wanted to do this and the community wanted to raise more awareness, so we wanted to support them”, he said. This isn’t the first documentary that Equitable Cambodia has been involved in.
In 2013, the organisation successfully campaigned the government and the Asian Development Bank with The Rehabilitation of the Cambodian Railways Project. In February 2014, ADB announced that victims would be properly compensated.
Nearly 100 families who live in three villages in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune near the Phnom Penh International Airport have been told by district authorities they have seven days to relocate and will be given no compensation.
The villagers protested in front of the Por Sen Chey district hall yesterday after they received a letter on Wednesday signed by district governor Kit Sopha, informing them of the seven-day deadline to evacuate their “anarchic” housing built against the airport’s southern-most fence.
However, the residents are refusing to relocate without compensation, claiming that they had the consent of district and commune officials to build so close to the airport.
“We buy the houses with signatures of the district and commune officials [allowing us to live in that area],” said Kheng Chey Lim, who has lived in her house for 10 years.
“But right now, they confirm that we build houses in anarchy. It is unsuitable that they order us to move with any compensation.”
Chey Lim said most of the residents in the area had lived in the allegedly illegally built houses for more than five years.
Another resident who gave his name only as Sreng protested the short eviction notice.
“My family is so poor. I have lived in this area for a long time. Now they order me to move without compensation. How can I do that? Where do I live next?” he said, fearing the entire community would end up homeless.
After meeting with Por Sen Chey district officials yesterday, the community was told to select 10 representatives to write a letter to Phnom Penh Municipality about their dispute.
In the eviction notice, authorities said homes would be demolished after seven days to keep order in Phnom Penh.
