Girls play outside their homes in the railway slums of Phnom Penh.
Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, property ownership has been a major issue in Cambodia, with the poor often being the most disadvantaged.
The Boeung Kak Lake property development, which is next door to the railway slums, is a prime example of this. Here an estimated 17,500 people were forcibly evicted from their homes and the lake itself was filled in. This has left residents at the railway settlement fearing the same treatment, having already been informed that the government will extend an adjacent block by 15m. Although this won’t directly affect any homes, locals remain concerned that the land grab won’t stop there.
2016.