Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 22 December 2020 - Since October 2020, a series of flooding heavily impacted the health, well-being and safety of people in Cambodian prisons and correctional centers.
Prisons in the country are generally overcrowded with prisoners living and working in strictly confined areas. As a result, the health profile of inmates tends to be poor compared with the general population. Social distancing is virtually impossible, significantly increasing the risk of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases.
Many prisons in Cambodia were flooded after the heavy rainfalls in October which led to evacuation of thousands of inmates to other less affected prisons. This has worsened the already overcrowded prison conditions and seriously increased the risk of COVID-19 outbreak in these facilities.
In response to the serious prison condition at the wake of the disaster, United Nations agencies in partnership with International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), took immediate action providing the Cambodian General Department of Prisons (GDP) urgent humanitarian support and assistance. As part of the coordinated United Nations actions, UNODC offered GDP to provide sanitation and hygienic supplies (e.g., masks, soaps detergents, alcohol, sanitary pads for women) and utility supplies (water pumps and diesel fuel for pumping). These humanitarian supplies were delivered to the prisons in Cambodia on 21st December 2020 with the support of the government of Japan.
These supplies will improve the living conditions of the inmates who are heavily impacted by the flooding and enhance the preparedness of the prisons in responding to the natural disasters in the future.
In addition to these humanitarian assistance and support, UNODC is well positioned for further assistance on policy development in reducing prison populations by introducing and implementing non-custodial measures such as community corrections systems based on appropriate risk assessment of the offenders.
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