Cambodia is on the verge of signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Arabia to formally create a legal pathway for Cambodians to work in Saudi Arabia. Why is this happening? Simple: the rate of exploitation (the ratio of profits to wage labour) increases when poor Cambodians (mainly domestic helpers but also construction workers) agree to earn a low salary in a wealthy country. This already happens to a large extent in Thailand. Saudi Arabia, however, is a country of far greater wealth. With this new MOU, Saudi Arabian employers will get cheap labor and Cambodians will get a higher wage than they would have back in their home country (or even Thailand). From the perspective of capital, this looks good for everyone because labor costs go down and profits up. But from labour’s perspective, this exploitation is brutal: 15 hour work days, little vacation time, few rights, far away from home and family, and the possibility of psychological and physical abuse. This isn’t a new phenomena, sadly. This has happened in Hong Kong for years, resulting in a system of second-class citizens who come from other countries (mostly from the Philippines today) to work as domestic helpers. This system in Hong Kong is institutionalised to such a degree that domestic helpers have their own visa entry points at the international airport, separate from tourists or residents. Yet, domestic helpers are not full citizens, earning under the Hong Kong minimum wage.

Saudi Arabia dosen’t have the best human rights track record for low-wage, foreign workers. The Phnom Penh Post quotes Joel Preston stating as much:

“Saudi Arabia has a long history of inflicting severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse upon its migrant domestic workers,” he said. “We saw the same thing in Malaysia. Indonesian maids were consistently subjected to torture, rape and death. The Indonesian government instituted a ban on sending workers there. But the Cambodian government was more than willing to pick up the slack, sending its citizens to work in places where too many Indonesians had already died and suffered.

“It was essentially a death sentence for many young Cambodian women – and it’s happening all over again.”

When Cambodia’s last comparative advantage within the system of global capitalism is cheap labor (its other advantage was abundant land, but that has mostly been privitzated at this point), human suffering becomes the norm. It’s a sad day when governments create legal norms that allow for increases in exploitation. I hope Cambodians can resist the temptation of a higher wage abroad relative to wages in Cambodia. But that is wishful thinking given the difficult living conditions most face.