[From the introductory text accompanying this report on the U.S. Department of State website: "In most cases, the Interim Assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti-trafficking progress of countries that may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2010 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2009 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May – the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report – and November. Readers are requested to refer to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large-scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country or territory."]

The Government of Cambodia has demonstrated modest progress to combat trafficking in persons since the release of the 2009 Report. Cambodian courts reported convicting four traffickers since April 2009, including a mother who prostituted her minor daughter to a foreign pedophile. The government did not report any efforts to investigate or prosecute labor recruiting agencies for labor trafficking, and its emphasis remained on prosecuting child sex tourists. The government did not prosecute, convict, or criminally punish any public officials complicit in trafficking. Impunity, endemic corruption, and related rent-seeking behavior continue to be an impediment to progress in combating trafficking in persons.

On August 31, the Ministry of Social Affairs adopted a new "Policy and National Minimum Standards for the Protection of the Rights of Victims of Human Trafficking," though the effects of this new policy have yet to be seen. The policy includes guidelines to improve victim treatment and protection, but the government continues to lack national procedures to proactively identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as foreign women and children arrested for prostitution. The government trained government officials on the enforcement of human trafficking provisions in the 2008 anti-trafficking law and also began to train judicial professionals on this law. The government continued public education and awareness efforts to discourage commercial sex acts, though these efforts were largely targeted at the tourist population and not at the significant local demand for such acts.

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