“Peace” is written across every local and central government building in Cambodia, but not always found within them. This year has been marked by episodes of abuse and corruption from government officials, as well as intimidation against whistleblowers and journalists.
Law enforcement across Phnom Penh and the provinces have been accused of beating people amid arrest — and on multiple occasions, beating or torturing them to death. Some of the people labeled offenders were caught over very little: A Phnom Penh scavenger died in police custody after taking less than $30 worth of car parts, and Licadho found at least 10 deaths in two months at the Prey Speu center, which is supposed to be a vocational training center but has been used to detain marginalized groups like people without homes and drug users. The Interior Ministry opened investigations into some cases of police violence, including the death of a deputy village chief in Kampong Thom military police custody, though officials cast doubt on the use of criminal violence from the probe’s start. Another investigation opened in Battambang after the family of a deceased victim said they were pressured to accept a funeral donation from police.
Several government officials have been accused of rape and gender-based violence, including a Kandal district official who allegedly raped a 14-year-old. Last year Prime Minister Hun Sen intervened in a high-profile case of an oknha sexually assaulting a TV presenter, and this year he reemphasized to an audience of graduates that he wouldn’t allow the businessman to buy his lawyer. But cases of rape by a police chief and violence from a deputy prosecutor respectively have been dismissed by the justice system. The publisher of government-aligned Khmer Times was acquitted of a sexual harassment charge.
There was a small but diverse group of whistleblowers who raised their voices against corruption in the government — including an ex-cop, a jilted CPP official and a property tycoon — but all whistleblowers found themselves in legal trouble instead.
While Phnom Penh’s Municipal Court had its hands full with mass trials of opposition members and the protracted Kem Sokha trial, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal closed the door on the long-running hybrid court system.
Amid these cases, Cambodia again ranked poorly in a global rule of law index. And it came under international spotlight this year as foreign nationals were trafficked, detained and tortured in Cambodian scam compounds.
The country witnessed shootings, bodies surfacing in seas, streets and empty lots as well as massive drug busts, which observers have also connected to the proliferation of the online scam industry. International actors have urged Cambodia to act against the business with financial penalties, and the Interior Ministry began to admit the country’s scam problem by year’s end.
Enslaved in 2022
- Late 2021
Victims come forward claiming thousands of foreign nationals are trapped in scam compounds and forced — under the threat of violence and debt bondage — to scam people around the world in fake romance and investment schemes. Early cases appear in Sihanoukville and tycoon Try Pheap’s SEZ in Pursat. - February 17
A Chinese man in his early 30s is admitted to a Phnom Penh hospital with swelling so intense that a nurse can’t draw his blood. His “blood slave” story — alleging multiple bags of his blood were harvested to pay debts to a Sihanoukville company after he refused to work as a scammer — gains international attention. - February 18
Scam compounds are linked to cigarette and casino tycoon Kok An and his now-deceased son-in-law and football club owner Rithy Samnang. - February 25
Phnom Penh authorities arrest Chen Baorong, a long-time business owner in Cambodia who led a volunteer team to rescue trapped workers, over the “blood slave” case, saying it was fabricated with his help. Chen is charged with incitement and other crimes. - April 12
Thai police arrive in Cambodia claiming more than 3,000 Thai citizens are being detained in Cambodian compounds, but by the operation’s end only 66 Thai nationals are rescued. - April 29
Authorities briefly detain a VOD reporter who was observing and taking photos of more than 200 Vietnamese nationals being quietly removed from Sihanoukville’s Jin Gang Hotel as an “administrative measure.” - June 20
Lu Xiangri, a former volunteer on Chen’s China-Cambodia charity team who was rescued from forced labor himself, speaks of his solitary, Sisyphean mission to bring work-slave cases to Preah Sihanouk authorities. - July 19
A Telegram channel appears to openly be selling workers to scam operations in human-trafficking networks extending beyond Cambodia. - July 20
The U.S. downgrades Cambodia in its Trafficking in Persons report, putting the government at risk of losing funding. Cambodia’s anti-trafficking czar Chou Bun Eng calls the U.S.’s assessment an “injustice,” but Interior Minister Sar Kheng says the “inhumane acts” committed in the country are regrettable. - July 27
After months of victims pleading online to Prime Minister Hun Sen and Preah Sihanouk governor Kuoch Chamroeun for help, Interior Minister Kheng sets up his own hotline for trapped workers — and is flooded with hundreds of calls for rescue, leading to a call for inspections of all foreigners’ accommodations. - August 19
Forty-two Vietnamese workers flee a casino in Kandal’s Koh Thom, swimming across the Binh Di river to reach Vietnam. One worker drowns. - August 30
The “blood slave” Li Ya Yuan Lun receives a suspended sentence and is immediately deported, while rescuer Chen Baorong and two colleagues are convicted to two years in prison. - September 5
Regional news explodes with stories of detention and torture in Cambodia, while the Khmer-Chinese business association denies that Cambodia has become a “crime haven.” - September 17
Another mass escape occurs at a border casino, this time with more than 60 Vietnamese nationals fleeing the Bavet-Moc Bai casino. Workers are later relocated from Bavet city en masse. - September 30
The Interior Ministry says more than 100,000 foreign nationals have come to work in Cambodia, even as it remains coy about workers actually being detained and the “technical” nature of online scams. - October 24
Scam companies appear to be moving their operations out of key centers like Sihanoukville to border towns in Oddar Meanchey and beyond to Myanmar and Laos. - October 28
Authorities follow foreign workers’ complaints across more than 10 provinces and Phnom Penh. - December 21
The Preah Sihanouk Appeal Court reduces the sentence of scam rescue leader Chen Baorong and two accomplices, signaling their release in early 2023.
