PHNOM PENH: (Bernama) Nearly 6,000 Cambodian children remain displaced and unable to return home or resume regular classes as a result of the border conflict with neighbouring Thailand.
Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said children have been deprived of their routines, homes, schools, and friends.
"What these children need most is not a better life in displacement. They need their homes back.
"They need their schools back. They need the right to live safely again in their own communities,” Neth Pheaktra said on a Facebook post on Wednesday (Sept 9).
The minister said that behind the barbed wire were homes families wanted to return to, schools children wanted to go back to, and farmland on which families depended for their livelihoods.
Communities have been affected, their sense of normalcy having been profoundly disrupted, he said.
Neth Pheaktra said temporary schools can help keep children in education but temporary learning arrangements must not become a permanent feature.
The five-day armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand erupted in late July 2025, following long-standing territorial disputes between the two countries.
A ceasefire was achieved in December the same year, but it collapsed and tensions flared up again. Diplomatic ties have since been severed and border crossings, closed.
The displaced have continued to shelter in temporary displacement camps. They are unable to return, fearing for their safety.
Neth Pheaktra’s remarks followed a visit by government officials and World Food Programme representatives to a displacement site in Preah Vihear province last week.
The United Nations-led international organisation is currently running a school meal programme for displaced children at the site.
According to the Interior Ministry, nearly 20,000 Cambodian civilians remain displaced as of Sept 6. - Bernama
