Thai police officials spoke to VOD about the rising number of Thai nationals lured by scam operations in Cambodia and provided insight into their efforts to rescue victims and the abuses perpetrated by these companies.
A web of powerful interests surrounds sites of trafficking and forced labor in Sihanoukville: Its notorious “Chinatown” area is dotted with businesses linked to prominent tycoons and high-ranking officials; another heavily guarded compound is owned by a ruling-party senator.
A Chinese national, who was trafficked to Cambodia, alleges that his blood was harvested seven times since last August, after he refused to partake in scam operations, leaving him frail and putting his health at serious risk.
Thai police has revealed details of recently arrested Thai nationals working at scam operations in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, and the limited assistance they were getting from their Cambodian counterparts.
More than 10 Taiwanese are being held against their will and working at a scam operation, said Taiwan’s foreign ministry. There are 84 endangered deer in a small patch of Kratie grassland. Hun Sen spoke with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday, with the prime minister putting forth a four-point appeal.
Four Pakistani nationals were kidnapped in Sihanoukville and held against their will by a foreign company, the Pakistani Embassy said on Thursday
Forty-nine Thai nationals were sent back to Thailand this week, but a Banteay Meanchey police official said there was no need to investigate if they were trafficked and forced to work.
As accusations of forced labor and confinement at scam operations across Cambodia come to the fore, two Thai nationals spoke to VOD about how they were detained and duped into scamming other people at sites in Poipet and Sihanoukville.
Military police spokesperson Eng Hy said Cambodian and Thai authorities had rescued 103 Thai nationals from a Pursat province special economic zone on Tuesday morning and brought the individuals across the border on Wednesday morning.
Police rescued a woman from a quarantine center for Try Pheap’s Special Economic Zone in Pursat on Wednesday night. But she had merely wanted to leave “because it was too quiet,” an official said, without answering why police intervention was needed.
VOD is an independent media outlet producing radio programs and disseminating information to the public via the Internet.
© 2019 VOD. All Rights Reserved.
