B Keila holdouts given month to mull payouts

HOLDOUTS from Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila community yesterday rejected compensation offers from City Hall to leave, with authorities saying they would give the residents a month to reconsider the offer.

Around 15 families still living on the site who are yet to receive compensation or relocation packages said the offers were unacceptable because they did not include enough financial compensation.

City Hall said some of the families are eligible to choose between a flat payout of $5,000, or a $2,000 payout and a one-room house in the city’s Prek Pnov district. Those who have little of the documentation necessary to prove their claims could get $3,000.

Sar Sorn, one of the holdouts, said the offers were inadequate and asked why the families could not receive flats in the development that led to their evictions. “If they don’t give us a house in Borei Keila, they have to give us acceptable compensation.”

Project developer Phanimex promised to build 10 buildings to house the people displaced by its project but has built only eight so far. City Hall spokesman Mean Chanyada said none of the remaining holdouts had enough documents to claim a house onsite, and that the compensation they could get was based on a fair assessment by officials.

He did not clarify how many families would be eligible for each of the options, and would not say what would happen once the deadline passes.