The Worst Jobs in Cambodia

The Worst Jobs in Cambodia

Most days, Miz Nazeat is a humble fisherman, plying his trade on the Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers of Phnom Penh. But when the police call, he takes up a second job. Nazeat is the man who finds bodies and hauls them out of the river.

The Japanese Bridge has become the capital's Lover's Leap. Every month, at least on star-crossed lover manages to evade police placed along its span and throw themselves into the fast-flowing currents of the Tonle Sap.

"I've been fishing this river since I was a child," the ethnic Cham Muslim says. "I know all the currents and all of the river's seasons. When police are looking for a body, I know where it is likely to be found."

At age 36, Nazeat says he can't remember when he began helping police and the families of the dead recover their loved ones. He is one of a handful of fishermen in Chroy Chun Var, across the river from Phnom Penh, who stop whatever they are doing when the authorities call. It is a thankless job - after just minutes, there is no hope of finding someone alive, he says.

"I stopped counting after the first 100 bodies," he says. The job is a grim one, with many of the suicides he recovers just young girls. "They have a fight with their sweetheart, and they jump. Once they are in the water, no one can survive in this stretch of river for more than five minutes. That's why they come to that bridge - they know it is high and the river is strong and they will achieve their result," he says matter-of-factly.

Nazeat says police pay him around 5,000 riel ($1.25) for each body he recovers. Because of the currents, some of the bodies spend days under the water before the river releases them and he can find them and haul them onto his boat and then to waiting police on the shore. It isn't, he admits, a very pleasant job.

"I try not to think about it. I try to think of the families who can put their child to rest in dignity. If I didn't do it, who would?" he asks.

Nazeat's latest grim triumph was to find the first of the five Singaporean rowers who drowned during Water Festival.

"When the police asked us fishermen to help them search for the people whose boat had capsized 30 minutes earlier, we all knew we were looking for bodies."

"This particular part of the river is very dangerous. We don't even attempt to fish here in November. It takes years to understand the currents, and they change season by season. This season the current is almost impossible to gauge," he said.

Nazeat says whether or not the five young Singaporeans were wearing life jackets would not have mattered. He says they were doomed from the second their boat hit a freak whirling current as they approached Phnom Penh Municipal Port to dock which turned their boat upside down and sucked them under the pontoon simultaneously.

"I am very surprised and happy that they saved 17 of them. It is very unusual for two bad things to happen at once to a boat like this, but it is possible, and once the river takes them under, it doesn't give them up easily," he said.

Nazeat says he began his search for the missing Singaporeans on Friday afternoon, but knew from sad experience he was unlikely to find any sign of them until at least two days later. When he located the first body, about two kilometers from where the boat capsized, he took him to the bank and alerted police divers where they should relocate their search. In the murky waters, divers had had no success, but after Nazeat found the first man, they recovered the rest within hours.

"This Water Festival six people died," Nazeat says, referring to the five Singaporeans and one Cambodian fatality. "Last year only one died. The year before was very lucky - no one was killed. Almost every year I have to look for bodies from the Water Festival races, but the rest of the year, the dead in the river are mostly suicides from the bridge. No one can swim this part of the river."

Nazeat's family listen to him tell his story. It's a job they say they could not do, but they admire him for taking it on.

"Nazeat has a skill and knowledge of this river, and he uses it to help people find the ones they love at the saddest of times. This is something we should be proud of," his grandmother says.

The Worst Jobs in Cambodia is an occasional EAS series. If you know someone who should be saluted for doing a job no one else wants, write to us.