As police raids have hit known scam locations and “illegal gambling” dens across the country, residents of casino haven Bavet say they have seen buses ferrying in hundreds of workers over the last few weeks to existing casinos and alleged scam compounds in the border town.
Sihanoukville authorities have fielded 420 human trafficking complaints in 51 days, leading to 1,605 foreign nationals being marked for deportation, according to an official report.
Under the cover of heavy rain last night, 10 rescued scam workers fled an immigration center in Phnom Penh, as a resident of another of the capital’s facilities spoke of bug bites and paying “tips” to police and said: “One nightmare ended, another began.”
Over the past week, top government officials have spoken in various forums of the human trafficking of foreign workers to scam compounds in Cambodia, some estimating tens of thousands of foreign workers are in the country.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday acknowledged foreign workers had been lured and trafficked to Cambodia amid ongoing police raids against criminal scam operations that have now reached Siem Reap.
Hundreds of foreign nationals have been removed from Phnom Penh compounds as police acknowledged detention, torture, extortion and human trafficking in several arrests.
Indonesian nationals rescued from a Phnom Penh scam compound say they were targeting Facebook users every day to cheat them out of thousands of dollars. Most are relieved to have gotten away from the criminal work and threat of violence that hovered over them.
Tens of thousands of people from across Asia have been coerced into defrauding people in America and around the world out of millions of dollars. Those who resist face beatings, food deprivation or worse.
Nearly 9,000 phones were seized from a Sihanoukville compound and barbed wire cut from the notorious “Chinatown” area. As human trafficking raids target compounds across the city, residents say other buildings appear to be quietly emptying of foreign workers.
More than 60 Vietnamese nationals attempted to flee a Bavet city casino on Saturday, as regional media report more arrests and raids tied to forced labor and fraud operations in Cambodia.
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