Photographing the Perilous Lives of Cambodia’s High Rise Construction Workers
VICE | 6 December 2016
Cambodia's construction industry is booming, but the lives of its
workers are perilous. With no safety equipment, regulations, or incident
reports, builders are treated as disposable. Every month, there's
another story of one falling to their death. And government inspections
aren't exactly routine, it's a sector that has been left to essentially
regulate itself.
I first came into contact with construction
workers in Phnom Penh while working for a local newspaper back in 2014.
I've been photographing them ever since, as the high rises continue to
go up. I've met entire families who live on building sites, confined to
small shelters built from leftover wood. I've met workers who work 11
storeys high without safety harnesses, wearing flip flops on their feet.
Many risk their lives daily in order to provide for their families or
pay off debts.
US-based labour rights group Solidarity Center
estimates Cambodia's construction sector workforce to be 300,000
strong, with an average salary of about $7 per day for unskilled
labourers. They fear it will take a massive, unavoidable accident to
usher in long-overdue changes. Such an accident is probably inevitable.
"Until
something really bad happens, it's hard to expect progress," says
Solidarity Center director William Conklin. "It would take a major
construction accident, a lot of loss of life, and even then I don't know
if changes would be sustained. It's sad that you have to say that."
No comments:
Post a Comment