The latest news on the plight of Group 78 families in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is not good.

Amid continued harassment and intimidation, most families who live in the Group 78 area apparently late last night felt they had no choice but to accept inadequate compensation and dismantle their own homes rather than have them destroyed by force.

A small number of families appear to be holding out, but Cambodian security forces are on the scene and the situation is changing rapidly by the hour. We fear that the complete destruction of the remaining homes will occur at any time.

We strongly condemn this latest development in the forced eviction of the Group 78 families.

Phnom Penh city officials have been trying for a long time to force the families to accept compensation that they feel is grossly inadequate. The compensation packages are not enough to set up a new home and income generation in the area they are now. If they are relocated to a site more than 20km away - with inadequate water, electricity, sanitation and sewerage services - their daily travel costs will far exceed their daily earnings.

Some of the 80 families have not even been offered a compensation package of any type. There has been no genuine consultation with the community, who have been living under the threat of forced eviction for three years. Nor have there been any attempts to explore feasible alternatives to the proposed eviction, including proposals submitted by Group 78 residents themselves.

Background Information

On 20 April Group 78 residents were issued with a sixth and final eviction notice informing them to dismantle their homes and leave in 15 days. Consequently, community representatives filed two applications with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. The first application was for the eviction notice to be overturned because it is illegal to issue an eviction notice without a Court order. The second application requested an injunction to halt eviction while the Cadastral Commission concludes its consideration of the land's legal status and ownership. Under Cambodian law, the Group 78 families are entitled to ownership of the land as they have lived there for more than five years. However, their applications for formal land titles have been repeatedly rejected.

The Court of Appeal rejected on 13 July the community's application for an injunction to stop the forced eviction, dismissing the application. The Court instead ruled that the 20 April eviction notice was legal, and the government body mandated to rule on land ownership disputes, the Cadastral Commission, should hear the case. The families had lodged complaints with the Cadastral Commission in June 2006, but despite repeated reminders, it appears to have taken no action.

The Deputy Governor of Phnom Penh warned members of the community on 9 July, that if they did not accept any of the compensation packages on offer they would be forcibly evicted on 17 July. The Municipality offered house owners four options: US$8,000; US$5,000 plus a small plot of land; US$1,500 plus a small plot of land and a small house at Trapeang Anchanh resettlement site; or an apartment at a different resettlement site that they had never seen. Trapeang Anchanh is some 20 km from where they now live and work, and basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation and sewerage are inadequate. The cost of transport to and from the site far exceeds their daily earnings. Around 20 families who are renting land in Group 78 have not been told what will happen to them.

There has been a steady rise in the number of forced evictions in Cambodia. Some 150,000 Cambodians are known to be living at risk of forced eviction in the wake of land disputes, land grabbing, agro-industrial and urban development projects. Victims are almost exclusively marginalised people living in poverty, who are unable to obtain effective remedies.

Forced evictions are carried out without adequate notice and consultation with those affected, without legal safeguards and without assurances of adequate alternative accommodation. Under international law, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR), Cambodia is prohibited from carrying out forced evictions, and must protect people from forced evictions.

The Group 78 families now at risk of eviction started moving into the area on the riverfront in 1983. Since then the value of the land has increased enormously. The families have applied for formal land titles several times, but the authorities have rejected their applications, despite the families having official documentation proving strong ownership claims.

The Phnom Penh authorities have given different reasons for the eviction of the families, ranging from beautification of the city to claims that the community are illegal squatters.

In 2007 more than 20 families left Group 78 for the resettlement site at Andong, after threats and harassment from the local authorities. However, they found they could not make a living at the resettlement site, and returned to the city as squatters, living in tents or under tarpaulins around the area.

In January 2009, about 400 poor urban families were forcibly evicted from Dey Kraham, which is near Group 78. Their homes were destroyed by an estimated 250 members of the security forces, and demolition workers, and many people lost their possessions. The vast majority were made homeless, and had no option but to move to a site far from Phnom Penh, without basic services and with shelters still under construction. The Phnom Penh authorities have told the Group 78 families that if they do not accept one of the compensation packages, they will be seeing a resolution similar to that of Dey Kraham.