PHNOM PENH – The number of suspects arrested in a Cambodian crackdown on i
nternet scam centres has risen to 2,000
, a government minister told AFP on July 18.
The United Nations has described South-east Asia as the “ground zero” of cybercrime centres, where workers typically use romance or business cons to defraud web users of an estimated US$40 billion (S$51.3 billion) annually.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet this week issued a directive telling law enforcement and the military to clamp down on the internet sweatshops or risk losing their jobs.
Information minister Neth Pheaktra, a member of a committee to combat online scams, told AFP authorities have expanded their raids to nine of the country’s 25 provinces.
“So far some 2,000 suspects have been arrested,” he said, adding that the suspects include Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Indian nationals.
He said the government wants to make the country “no safe haven for online scammers” and “will dismantle every scam network no matter where they hide”.
At least 226 Chinese nationals were among the detained suspects, according to a police report, which said some ringleaders would face prosecution in Cambodia while most others will be expelled.
The justice ministry said it suspended one prosecutor pending an investigation after he released several cybercrime suspects.
Abuses in Cambodia’s scam centres are happening on a “mass scale”, Amnesty International said in a report published in June.
There are at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia where organised criminal groups carry out human trafficking, forced labour, child labour, torture, deprivation of liberty and slavery, the report noted.
Many of those freed from South-east Asian scam centres said they were trafficked or lured there under false pretences.
In March, Cambodia deported 119 Thais – among 230 foreign nationals detained during raids on alleged cyberscam centres in Poipet city. AFP
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