"At 65 years old, Hob Touch lived through a genocide that erased a quarter of his country's population, two brutal civil wars, and decades of uncompleted rebuilding. Then, in 2022, the Cambodian government seized his home at Angkor-a home he'd held for generations-and forced his family to move out. In Run Ta Ek, a relocation site 25 kilometers northeast of Angkor, Touch leaned against a plastic chair."
"Siem Reap is the Cambodia most Americans know: temples, tuk-tuks, selfies at Angkor Wat. But since 2022, more than 40,000 Cambodians -some of them Indigenous families who have lived for generations on the land-have been forced out of their homes around Angkor to make room for tourists. The region is Asia's most visited UNESCO World Heritage site; 214,529 Americans came to marvel at the ruins in 2024."
Hob Touch, aged 65, was forced from his multigenerational home at Angkor when the government seized land in 2022 and relocated his family to Run Ta Ek. The relocation site offers no farmland and few job opportunities, leaving residents unable to sustain traditional livelihoods and reporting no governmental support visits. Since 2022, more than 40,000 people, including Indigenous families with generational ties to the land, have been evicted around Angkor to accommodate tourism. Siem Reap remains a major tourist destination while a deadly Thai-Cambodian border conflict has produced hundreds of refugees, makeshift camps, births without proper care, and communities divided by barbed wire. Independent local journalists face obstacles covering these humanitarian and displacement crises.
Read at The Nation
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