The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Children run and play amongst temporary dwellings built on ground that runs down through swamps to the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh, and which is typical of the conditions in which many thousands of Khmer families are forced to live. Subject to annual inundation from monsoon flooding, none of these homes have access to any services such as electricity, running water, sewerage or toilets. Thousands of landless families squat in poverty on whatever land or buildings they find available, having returned under the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)'s Repatriation scheme after years of exile in the Thai border camps to discover their former homes were already 'owned' and occupied. Many other families have been displaced by fighting, landmines and rural poverty and are drawn to the city where the prospect of jobs appears brighter, further compounding an already spiralling housing crisis, but many fall victim to high rates of disease, violence and social dysfunction.
These dwellings built on stilts over stagnant, swampy ground adjacent to the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh are typical of the conditions in which many thousands of Khmer families are forced to live. A
A woman feed cobs of corn to one of her children at the doorway to their temporary home built on swampy ground adjacent to the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh, which is typical of the conditions in whic
The point where Phnom Penh's ferry terminal and riverside markets stop and its squatter settlements and houseboats begin is marked by a line of wicker baskets used for carrying produce. These settleme
A young Khmer girl cares for her baby sibling amongst debris and rubbish in the street behind apartment blocks off Lenin Boulevard in central Phnom Penh. Thousands of landless families squat in povert
A Khmer mother appears to be contemplating her future as she sits on the wooden steps of her makeshift home while her son eats a meal with a large metal spoon. They are living behind a group of dilapi
The rear of a pair of dilapidated apartment blocks located just off Phnom Penh's Lenin Boulevard which are home to hundreds of squatters living in rudimentary conditions. Children play in the squalid,
