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POIPET, Cambodia – At 7.30 a.m., some 50 porters were already lined up in front of the border post here, fidgeting with their carts as they waited to be allowed to cross over to Thailand.

When the Poipet international gate finally opened, the bustling trade on both sides of the border between Cambodia and Thailand began for the day.

A Cambodian policeman waved to a porter to stop and wait for her turn to walk over to Thailand. She is just one among the 300 to 400 porters who cross the border every day and head for the Rong Kloeu market in Aranyaprathet town in Sra Keaw province, Thailand. From there, they will return with many goods to be sold in Cambodia.

This is a familiar daily scene at the busy border, where it is common knowledge that a good amount of smuggling happens. But some porters are engaged in a type of smuggling that did not exist until a few years ago. Many of them now surreptitiously bring in chickens, ducks and all kinds of poultry, the importation of which was banned in Cambodia in January 2004 after outbreaks of avian flu were reported.

This is why the control services desk here has customs officers from the Ministry of Economy and employees from Camcontrol, the government agency attached to the Ministry of Commerce tasked to control the quality of products marketed in Cambodia. Keeping a close eye on cross-border travellers, they are assigned to prevent even a single egg or piece of poultry from coming through the border, following directives issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Feb. 10, 2005.

This measure has already affected poultry producers in Thailand -- the fourth biggest poultry exporter in the world after Brazil, the United States and China -- and those who sell these products in neighbouring Cambodia.

In August 2006, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) regional office in Bangkok urged South-east Asian countries to intensify border control measures because it feared a bird flu pandemic after the reported deaths of six Cambodian and 17 Thai nationals.

But at the Rong Kloeu market in Aranyaprathet-- where almost 80 percent of the vendors are Cambodians -- chicken meat remains available in many stalls.

Ta Krem, 36, picked up two big empty plastic bags from one of these stalls. The Cambodian porter was being paid by a shopkeeper, also from Cambodia, to bring 15 kilogrammes of Thai chicken meat over the border. He met up with his wife and daughter -- who were watching his cart -- concealed his illegal load under other goods, and then travelled back with them to Banteay Meanchey, over in Cambodia.

But the income he makes from smuggling is hardly enough to feed his family, he rued.  “I’m paid 30 baht (less than one U.S. dollar) for these 15 kilos of chicken. I know that these products are illegal and I’m afraid of being caught. But policemen and customs officers are usually tolerant since I do not carry large quantities,” Ta Krem explained.

SOME MAKE IT, OTHERS DON’T

Oun Noeun has been going through the same routine for six months. The day this writer went to the border, Oun Noeun was fortunate to have escaped the notice of the customs officers and Camcontrol agents -- but not the immigration policemen, who usually just check travel documents.

They were fussier. They found the 20 kg of meat that the young porter, who had also been hired by a Cambodian shopkeeper, hid under some vegetables. “They asked me to pay 100 baht (2.63 dollars),” Oun Noeun said, relieved to have been able to keep his goods. “If I didn’t pay, they would have seized the goods and I would have had to pay everything back to the shopkeeper.”

Oun Noeun said it was the second time that he had to shell out money so he could keep the poultry.

After going through the control checkpoints, he met his partner, Chan Thy, who was waiting for him about 300 metres away. Oun Noeun got less than 30 baht per bag of 10 kg – it was not a good day for smuggling chicken.  “It’s illegal, I know, but if I refuse to carry poultry, how can I have money to buy rice? It’s my job,” he said.

Chan Thy hurriedly checked the goods and watched attentively as they were transferred to another trailer for delivery to a marketplace in Nimith commune in O’Ochrov district. “I generally pay 300 baht (nearly 8 dollars) for 15 kilos of meat and I sell 10 kilos to farmers for about the same price,” she said hesitantly, pretending not to know anything about the ban on poultry importation. “If that's true, then why are they not seized at the market stalls?”

Another porter, Uon Ny, says the meagre earnings from smuggling poultry are still better than that from ferrying other items across the border to Cambodia. “For 10 kilos of transported chicken meat, I earn 30 baht. For the same weight of fruits, I hardly get five baht (13 cents),” he calculated.

After the smuggled goods reach Poipet in Banteay Meanchey, they are distributed to other parts of the province. These goods can also find their way to Battambang province, toward the north.

Uon Ny had been caught by the police once, in 2005. He said he got away without losing his goods – 30 kg of meat – after paying 500 baht (13.1 dollars) to the border police.

But some porters are not as lucky, and have had their entire shipment seized by government agents at the border.

Seth Savy, who hails from Vietnam, recalled that Camcontrol agents seized about 40 ducks and chicken eggs as well as other items in her cart. “I didn’t even know that this was prohibited. If I had known, I would never have bought them. I had no intention of selling them. They were only meant to be eaten,” she argued.

Lun Leakhena, a vermicelli seller, likewise said she was unaware of any ban on the importation of poultry. She bought the meat only because it was cheaper over in Thailand, she added.

Chen Sokun, a 38-year-old amputee, was caught trying to smuggle 10 kg of poultry for a Cambodian shopkeeper in October 2006. “I was warned. I signed an undertaking and I paid a 100-baht fine,” he recalled. “Importations have been forbidden because people are afraid of a bird flu epidemic.”

“Porters are now aware of this, but they continue to import poultry,” said Sokun, who says he has stopped smuggling poultry.

Other porters, however, said they have been able to bring their illegal goods through customs by bribing the immigration and customs services people. They added that they can identify some agents, who regularly receive a few baht to look the other way.

Meas Mora, head of the Camcontrol branch in Banteay Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey provinces and the Siem Reap international airport, explained that his agents seize the smuggled goods after they are intercepted. “Those apprehended are asked to sign a written undertaking and a warning memo, in which they promise not to transport these kinds of products anymore,” he said. “If they do it again, they run the risk of being charged.”

Uch Savorn, head of the animal production and health office in Banteay Meanchey, which does not have jurisdiction at the border, expressed concern over weak controls especially at illegal points of entry. He said some members of border unit forces “work as accomplices of the smugglers”, although he was quick to add that only a few public officers were involved in this.

Meas Mora acknowledged that corruption exists, but not in the services he oversees. Some other units intercept the porters before they reach the Camcontrol agents and threaten to charge them if they do not pay up, he added. He said “superiors must take action against their subordinates” involved in this irregularity, stressing that agents under his responsibility do not take bribes.

Pich Saran, head of the immigration police at the Poipet border post, refuted all allegations of corruption by saying that his men just control the travellers, not their goods.

HARD TO STOP

Those involved in poultry smuggling at the border are Cambodians, not Thais, emphasised Heng Bunhor, director of the provincial department of agriculture in Banteay Mancheay. Poverty drives many Cambodians to engage in this, he said.

“The standard of living in Cambodia is low. Thus, Cambodians go to Thailand to find some cheaper products. In the Malai district, most of the meat comes from Thailand,” he said. “It is really difficult to take measures in districts where people are used to obtaining supplies from the neighbouring country.” He explained that imported products are very often scraps and bones that come from canneries and processing plants.

Meas Mora added that businesses that rely on smuggling through the official Thai-Cambodian checkpoint are run mostly by small merchants, who use poorly paid day-workers and handicapped people to transport goods for them. Each porter rarely carries beyond 30 kg. After several ‘deliveries’ from the Thai side of the border, the bigger merchants collect the goods a few kilometres from the Poipet border post and then distribute them all over the country by land.

Smuggling also takes place through illegal border crossings, which border authorities are not always able to control.

According to Meas Mora, big-time smugglers at the border operate between 3 and 4 a.m. and move their goods by car, before distributing them in Phnom Penh.  “The problems posed by these importations are much bigger, because between 500 kilos and one tonne of products can be transported by car. Some (Toyota) Camry vehicles, completely filled with goods, have been found at times,” he explained. “These are the priority targets we have to collaborate with the police on.”

MORE COOPERATION NEEDED

While the collaboration on border controls among Camcontrol agents, veterinary services, customs officers, policemen and gendarmes in Cambodia was smooth, the Thai authorities have not been as cooperative, Meas Mora observed. He added that it has been difficult to convince Thailand, which appears to be more worried about drug smuggling across the border, to curb exports of its own chickens.

Kao Phal, director of the Cambodia’s Department of Animal Production and Health and spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture on bird flu issues, called upon the Thai authorities to reinforce controls along the border and illegal border crossing points.

But Thai officials did not conceal their perplexity in the face of such measures. “Yes, I heard that Cambodia banned poultry imports in 2004, although up to now I haven’t received any official document,” Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, director of the diseases and veterinary services control office at the Thai Ministry of Agriculture, said in an interview in December 2006.

“No new case has been identified among our poultry during the last four months,” he said. (Subsequently, a new outbreak of avian flu was reported in the central Thai province of Phitsanulok.) “Japan, South Korea and the European Union haven’t discontinued their imports. I think we shouldn’t have any problem with Cambodia either. Due to the relations between our two countries, this ban could be lifted,” he explained.

Nirundorn said the two countries have been working together, destroying seized goods when necessary.  “But I know that the products destroyed in this way are free from the H5N1 virus,” he said, explaining that all Thai chicken exports are controlled, recorded and issued health certificates that ensure they are free from bird flu and other diseases.

To convince Cambodia to lift its ban on cross-border imports, Thailand is determined to show that its poultry products are clean and safe. In June 2006, officials from the health department of Sra Kaew province invited their counterparts in Banteay Meanchey to visit a commercial breeding facility. In the next month, Thai experts trained 38 community veterinarians from a Cambodian district.

“They wanted to show us that some preventive measures had been implemented in Thai farms and poultry facilities and thus were not affected by bird flu, and that in spite of the emergence of several centres of contamination, exportation could continue without any problems,” said Uch Savorn of the animal production and health office here.

But for the time being, the illegal importation of poultry into Cambodia continues from across the border with Thailand, he pointed out.

Apart from transporting chickens and chicken meat across the border, many Cambodians also buy fighting cocks from Thailand. The illicit movement of these prized chickens, against the backdrop of bird flu, is very lucrative: a Thai fighting cock can be worth between 10,000 and 50,000 baht (263 to 1,315 dollars).