I would like to bring to your attention a scam that frequently takes place in Siem Reap and of which it would be of importance for anyone travelling to Cambodia to be aware of.
Earlier this year, I spent 5 weeks in Siem Reap and on my first night, I encountered the following:
A young teenage girl approached me with a nearly unconscious baby on her arm. She had a desperate look in her eyes, clamped my arm and said ‘no money, just milk for my baby’. Usually I’m more sceptical, but in this case I did not think twice and went into the supermarket to buy her the 8 dollar milk powder. In the following days I kept seeing the same scene and witnessed many tourists buying the milk powder, and I started wondering if I did the right thing.
After talking to people who have been living in Siem Reap longer, this is what I found out:
The milk powder is not used to feed the baby. They have an agreement with the supermarkets with allows them to sell the milk powder back and both they and the supermarkets make a profit of it. This is not the worst part. The ‘mothers’ are part of a bigger (mafia-like) organization. The babies are not their own babies, but are babies from the villages (there are different theories on how these babies end up in this situation). These babies are drugged to make them look drowsy. These drugs have detrimental consequences for the babies bodies, if they even survive their first years.
The Cambodian government does not seem interested in intervening and people who have directly tried to warn tourists have been threatened. Only if tourists stop buying the milk powder, it will take away any motive to take the babies, drug them, and have them out on the streets for hours. Therefore, I want to urge to not participate in this and to spread the news, so as many people as possible will know about this. Hopefully, together, we can stop or at least diminish this horrendous practice.
Here is some additional information on this topic:
http://www.movetocambodia.com/siem-reap/cambodia-scams-the-powdered-milk-scam/
