Cambodia jails Vietnamese 'brothel victims'

The girls were forced to work in a Cambodian brothel

A Cambodian court has imposed prison sentences on a group of Vietnamese girls rescued from a brothel, who were arrested for illegally entering the country.

Fourteen girls, some reportedly as young as 14, are alleged to have been brought into Cambodia by people-traffickers.

They have faced double misfortune

Soeung Kamaryan, Counsellor

The girls were sentenced to up to three months in jail and deportation upon their release.

Human rights activists freed the girls from the brothel in May and expressed outrage when, a month later, they were arrested.

The girls should be treated as victims of human trafficking, not criminals, the rights campaigners said.

"They have faced double misfortune," said counsellor Soeung Kamaryan of the French-funded rights group Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances.

"First, they were trafficked from one country to another, and second, they became victims again under the charge of illegal crossing."

Judge Nop Sophon found four others in the group not guilty of the charges, ruling that they were citizens because they could prove their long-term residency in Cambodia.

No action

Cambodian authorities have taken no action against the alleged traffickers, saying an ongoing probe failed to turn up any evidence.

Fourteen of the defendants were rescued in May from a brothel on the outskirts of the capital by children's rights activists targeting a human trafficking ring.

They moved into an abused women's shelter, where they were later arrested by police accusing them of being illegal immigrants.

Most of the 14 convicted women have been in jail for more than a month and have only a few weeks left to serve before being deported.

More than four million people were bought and sold into the slave trade last year, according to US State Department figures.