PHNOM PENH - Retail giants Walmart and fashion company Centric Brands are investigating allegations that inmates at Cambodia's largest women's prison were forced to produce garments for export.
The American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) wrote to Cambodia's US Ambassador Keo Chhea last year expressing "strong concerns regarding credible reports" that inmates at Correctional Center 2 (CC2), near Phnom Penh, were producing garments and other textile products for export as part of a rehabilitation programme.
AAFA subsequently wrote a second letter to Deputy Prime Minister Aun Pornmoniroth, who is also Minister of Economy and Finance, and Pan Sorasak, Cambodia's Minister of Commerce, in February, pointing out that the import of prison-made products into the US was illegal.
