MANILA - The Philippines opened its 43rd Migrant Workers Office in Phnom Penh on July 14 to serve Filipino workers across Cambodia.

The Department of Migrant Workers announced the opening schedule in a July 10 release. MWO-Phnom Penh has a labor attaché, administrative personnel and a social welfare attaché, placing employment and welfare specialists in the Cambodian capital.

The office will coordinate with the Philippine Embassy on legal aid, welfare support, reintegration programmes, skills training and employment-related concerns. Workers facing contract disputes, recruitment problems or distress can now seek help from a dedicated DMW post inside Cambodia.

DMW Undersecretary Felicitas Bay said illegal recruitment and trafficking linked to online scam compounds would be a major concern. “We are focused on the problems faced by our countrymen, who have fallen victim to online scams or human trafficking,” she said.

Embassy data cited by Radyo Pilipinas on July 13 put the Filipino worker population in Cambodia at 13,000 in 2025, up from 10,000 in 2024.

Filipinos in Cambodia work across professional and skilled occupations. A July 11 report identified teachers, factory supervisors, missionaries, engineers, doctors, nurses and pilots among the community the new office is expected to support.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the office’s establishment during a September 7, 2025 meeting with more than 500 Filipinos in Phnom Penh. The DMW announced the directive on September 9, 2025 and said the planned post would become its 43rd office worldwide.

The order followed an increase in cases involving Filipinos recruited into scam hubs. Philippine Ambassador Flerida Ann Camille Mayo said authorities rescued at least 24 victims in Cambodia during August 2025.

On February 5, the Philippine government repatriated 190 overseas Filipino workers rescued from Cambodian scam hubs. The DMW said that group raised the number of scam victims assisted and returned from several countries since 2022 to 877.

Before the Phnom Penh post opened, some Cambodia cases required support from another overseas office. Thirteen trafficking victims who returned on January 25 received assistance from the Philippine Embassy and the Migrant Workers Office in Singapore, together with government agencies in Manila.

Republic Act No. 11641 defines an MWO at a Philippine Foreign Service Post as the DMW’s overseas operating arm. The Phnom Penh office can now handle worker-protection and employment matters locally in coordination with the embassy and Cambodian authorities.