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Sunday, April 6, 2025
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Sunday, April 6, 2025

Cambodia police raid illegal online scam centers

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia—Cambodian police said Monday they have raided two locations in a city on the Thai border in a crackdown on online scam centers and detained more than 200 foreigners.

The raids, conducted over the weekend in the city of Poipet, found 230 foreigners, including 123 Thais, after a three-month investigation, the Cambodian National Police said in a statement.

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“These foreigners were operating illegal online (activities) with Chinese nationals as ringleaders,” the statement said, adding they accepted the “illegal work” voluntarily.

It said Cambodian police were working with their Thai counterparts regarding the Thai nationals to identify ringleaders.

Cambodian police were also questioning other foreigners and would take further legal measures against them, it added.

The raids come as Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar crack down on illegal scam centers which have multiplied across Southeast Asia in recent years.

Myanmar and Cambodia have been favored locations for the centers in an industry worth billions of dollars a year.

Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa held talks in Myanmar over the weekend with his counterpart Than Shwe as well as junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, which included the scam center problem.

Many workers say they were lured or tricked by promises of high-paying jobs before they were effectively held hostage, their passports taken from them while they were forced to commit online fraud.

They say they suffered beatings and other abuse at the hands of their supervisors, and Agence France Presse (AFP) has interviewed numerous workers freed from centers with severe bruising and burns.

Around 600 Chinese workers were repatriated from Myanmar scam centers last week, while the week before a local militia handed over 260 workers from a dozen countries, including the Philippines, Ethiopia, Brazil and Nepal, to Thailand.

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