Cambodia shuts foreign-run orphanage accused of beating children, human trafficking
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Cambodian authorities have shut a foreign-run orphanage that is suspected of beating its children and carrying out human trafficking.
Officials and a rights group said Monday that police raided the unlicensed orphanage, called Love in Action, in the capital, Phnom Penh, and rescued 21 children.
Gratianne Quade, a spokeswoman for SISHA, an anti-trafficking organization in Cambodia, said an Australian woman who ran the orphanage was not arrested in the Friday raid and her current whereabouts were not known.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Um Sophanara, an official at the Social Affairs Ministry, which oversees orphanages, confirmed the closure but declined to give details. A SISHA statement said the raid came after several groups of children had fled the orphanage recently and reported a variety of neglect and abuse problems to authorities.