Woman Pleads in Khmer for Scam Rescue
Thousands of viewers have circulated a video online of a woman pleading in Khmer for rescue from forced labor at a Sihanoukville scam center.
Mech Dara Sep 16, 6:48 pm
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Thousands of viewers have circulated a video online of a woman pleading in Khmer for rescue from forced labor at a Sihanoukville scam center.
The Preah Sihanouk provincial administration announced police are investigating a Sihanoukville business, a possible targeting of an illegal operator following a series of recent human trafficking rescues from scam compounds.
A public-relations officer has asked VOD to remove the Zhengheng Group from an article on scam operations and offered money to do so, saying the company is helping authorities crack down on illegal businesses in its Koh Kong compound.
Top government officials continued high-level meetings over human trafficking on Monday as Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities ordered all building owners to report foreign residents and workers on their premises by September 24.
Masterminds and brokers are operating online scams and fraud syndicates out of Cambodia, Interior Minister Sar Kheng admitted on Thursday, but argued that Cambodians were largely uninvolved in the criminal activities.
Taiwanese prosecutors allege ransom and electric shocks at Cambodian compounds, Malaysian media report a holidayer allegedly kidnapped then sold into scam work, and a Vietnamese newspaper says 10 countries are pressing Cambodia to cooperate on human trafficking.
Fifty-nine Thais were removed from scam operations in Cambodia in simultaneous raids on two compounds this week — including 40 from the Kandal facility where Vietnamese nationals last month made a dramatic escape swimming across a river, Thai police said Friday.
Cambodian authorities have publicized more arrests and rescues from forced-labor compounds, mostly in Sihanoukville — though they have so far spoken little about the multimillion-dollar global scams operating within them.
Authorities met again over the country’s ongoing human trafficking scourge, in a committee headed by National Police and military police bosses Neth Savoeun and Sao Sokha — pledging action regardless of any suspected links to those officials.
A Chinese “blood slave” convicted of fabricating his tale received a suspended jail sentence of just three months — and has already been sent home — while three accomplices including trafficking rescuer Chen Baorong were sentenced to two years in jail.
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