After months of authorities’ denials, Interior Minister Sar Kheng acknowledged foreign nationals had been trafficked into Cambodia, passed around gambling and other syndicates, faced violence and threats, and were calling out for help and rescue for more than a year.
Chairing a meeting to combat trafficking on Friday morning, Kheng condemned the “inhumane acts,” expressed regret, and thanked those who had been providing information about the cases, according to a statement issued by the Interior Ministry.
Police this week launched seven rescues to remove human-trafficking victims of six nationalities from Cambodian compounds, the statement continued, adding that further cases would be investigated and cracked down upon.
Thousands of foreign nationals have been working in online scam compounds across Cambodia, many of them lured to the country and trapped in debt bondage. They have reached out to police, provincial administrations or Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook page, coming forward with allegations of torture and forced labor.
Many have spoken of a lack of action against and impunity for the criminal syndicates — one volunteer trying to rescue human-trafficking victims has been jailed and others forced underground — but the Interior Ministry said it had acted promptly, rescuing 865 foreigners this year and sending 60 suspected perpetrators to court.
The ministry said that for more than a year, Cambodian authorities had been receiving requests for rescue and intervention for foreign victims of human trafficking, and authorities found and rescued most of them in a timely manner.
“Based on the results of research and interrogation, it has been found that a large number of these foreigners were deceived by criminal gangs in their own country and their accomplices in Cambodia using social media to trick them to cross the border illegally into Cambodia under the promise of high-paying jobs,” it added.
“However, these individuals were then assigned to be involved in illegal online gambling and have become victims of human trafficking and human smuggling, and they were trafficked or transferred from one group to another, without the consent of the parties, and in some cases, they faced violence and other threats if they did not follow the orders of the criminals.”
Interior Minister Kheng considered the trafficking to be among the most serious forms of transnational crime, the release said.
“On behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia and the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking, Samdech Kralahom [Sar Kheng] expressed his regret and condemned these inhumane acts. Samdech also thanked — and welcomed the various information provided by — individuals and foreign representatives in Cambodia in the past related to the above case.”
Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said that just after midnight this morning, police cracked down on a labor trafficking case in Sihanoukville to rescue a woman, arresting 11 individuals and confiscating a handgun.
Sopheak called for more specific and detailed information in order to undertake further rescues. This week, raids had been conducted in the provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Pursat, Svay Rieng and Oddar Meanchey, he said, adding that Chinese, Vietnamese, American, Cambodian, Indonesian and Philippine nationals were removed from Sihanoukville compounds.
A statement from the Preah Sihanouk provincial administration dated Wednesday said law enforcement authorities would investigate labor trafficking and detention and shut down such operations.
“For the locations that the perpetrators use for the purchase, sale, [forced] labor, trafficking and illegal detention of people, it is strictly necessary to close the businesses and bring the perpetrators and the owners of the locations who participated in the conspiracy to be punished severely according to the law. There are no exceptions,” the statement said.
Compounds within which such operations have been reported are linked to tycoon Try Pheap in Pursat; Senator Kok An in Sihanoukville; and a range of Chinese businesspeople and criminals. No details have yet been obtained about the suspects so far targeted or arrested by authorities. Earlier this year, National Police said media outlets were exaggerating accounts of detention and extortion.
