The Indonesian Embassy has called on Cambodian police to help rescue 53 nationals it believed were being held captive in Cambodian scam compounds, part of a sharp rise in such victims this year, Indonesian magazine Tempo reported.
According to Tempo, the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s directorate for citizens protection said on Thursday that the 53 Indonesians citizens were being held at “fraudulent investment firms” in Sihanoukville. The directorate said the report is being investigated by Cambodian police.
“The embassy had contacted the Cambodian Police and requested assistance for the release of the Indonesian citizens,” Tempo reported.
Details of the apparent human trafficking have yet to be disclosed, but the case emerged via a social media comment made on the page of the Central Java governor, Tempo said.
“Such cases were rampant in line with many advertisements of job vacancies in Cambodia circulated on social media,” Tempo said.
Some 119 Indonesian nationals were repatriated from Cambodia in 2021, a number that had already risen to 133 for 2022 as of July, with a further 158 victims recorded by authorities, Tempo said. Indonesia was collecting data on recruiters and facilitating investigations into Cambodia, it said.
— Michael Dickison
17-Year-Old Electrocuted Sleeping on Power Strip
A 17-year-old Cambodian girl working as a Chinese translator at a gold mine died from electrocution in Kratie province.
According to provincial police, officers found the girl on Wednesday morning in her rental room following an investigation.
The girl had slept on a power strip she had put on her bed so she could charge and use her phone at night, police said.
The police statement added that she worked for a Chinese gold-mining company in Sambor district’s Kbal Damrei commune.
“A police autopsy and examination of the body by a doctor at scene has clarified that she died from electric shock,” police said.
— Keat Soriththeavy
