Thousands of workers flee Cambodia scam centres, officials say | Cambodia
It is estimated that thousands of people, including suspected victims of human trafficking, have been released or escaped from fraud compounds in Cambodia in recent days, following increasing international pressure to crack down on the multi-billion dollar industry.
The Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh said it had received reports from 1,440 citizens who were released from fraud centres, and large queues of Chinese citizens were also seen outside the Chinese embassy.
Amnesty International said it had geolocated 15 videos and images, examined social media posts showing escape attempts and posted at least 10 fraudulent compounds across Cambodia.
There are no exact figures on the numbers announced, but Amnesty International estimates the number to be in the thousands.
Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s regional research director, said it was difficult to determine what role the police played in the broadcasts, adding that the police were visible in some videos but not in others.
Ferrer added that there are concerns about the lack of support for released workers. Some “were seen wandering around looking for help, and we also know that some people managed to get to safe houses,” he said.
Without support, employees risk moving to a new fraud location; this was a trend also seen in previous versions. “We’ve seen people who have had to move to other campuses, and if people have escaped but they don’t know where to go, they don’t know what to do next, it’s possible. [then they] eventually we find it in another compound.
The online fraud industry has flourished in recent years in parts of Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, where the UN estimates 100,000 people work on campus. Many workers are tricked into accepting jobs on sites and then held against their will and forced to commit online scams, including romance investment scams and crypto scams.
Jacob Sims, a visiting researcher at Harvard University’s Asia Center, said the latest revelations are unprecedented in Cambodia. “It is abundantly clear that all of this was precipitated by years of mounting international pressure, but in fact began to escalate exponentially with the historic action of the UK and US against Chen Zhi on 14 October.”
Chen Zhi, a Chinese-born Cambodian businessman, was sanctioned by the UK and the US in October last year, which accused him of “running a transnational criminal empire through online investment scams targeting Americans and others around the world”.
Chen, who heads Prince Group, was arrested and extradited to China earlier this month; This is the strongest step yet taken against criminal organizations in Cambodia.
The Cambodian government did not respond to a request for comment on the latest publications.
Prime Minister Hun Manet promised on Facebook to “eliminate all problems related to the crime of cyber fraud.”
Sims said that although recent developments were promising, the problem would re-emerge if international pressure was not maintained. “This industry has clearly gotten to the point where it’s too big to fail. This is an important resource that is the regime’s legacy,” said Sims, who is also a senior advisor on transnational crime at Inca Digital, an open-source intelligence company.
“What happens from here will depend on how sustained and durable this pressure on the regime remains,” he added.
The Cambodian government has been repeatedly accused of being complicit in the fraud industry.
USA 2024 Human Trafficking Report It warned about Cambodia: “Some senior government officials and advisors owned, directly or through businesses, properties and facilities known to be used by online fraud operators, exploiting victims of labor trafficking and directly benefiting financially from these crimes.”
“The involvement of officials and economic elites has led to selective and politically motivated enforcement of laws, hindering effective law enforcement actions against smuggling crimes,” he said.
Cambodia rejected allegations that its government was complicit, saying it “has never supported and will not tolerate cybercriminal activities” and that it “remains fully committed to integrity, transparency and adherence to the rule of law and international norms.”
According to estimates from the United States Institute of Peace, the returns from cyber fraud in Cambodia are estimated to exceed: 12.5 billion dollars annuallyhalf of the country’s official GDP.
