Cambodia pledged “drastic measures” against scam compounds in response to U.N. queries about 100,000 alleged human trafficking victims in Sihanoukville, but also denied finding any debt bondage and placed the country’s “reputation, dignity and benefits” at the top of its principles for combating the crime.
Immigration officials treated foreign businesses softly as “investors” even when they blocked labor inspections — before a series of raids confirmed hundreds of human trafficking cases across the country, the Interior Ministry said.
Thirty-four Indonesian nationals were rescued from Poipet after being trafficked to the country. Also, Thai police found data cables stretching across the border with Cambodia and used by scam operations in Poipet
A woman who was allegedly confined by a brick kiln owner in Kampong Cham’s Chelea commune was released after her family agreed to pay a $5,000 debt to the owner.
A 5.5-hour Interior Ministry press conference reviewed recent raids against the forced labor of foreign nationals, but officials continued to sidestep from naming compound owners and saying whether the syndicates perpetrated global scams.
Four people trapped in forced labor inside a central Phnom Penh condominium reached out to Interior Minister Sar Kheng for help, leading to a raid this week that removed 274 foreign nationals from the Boeng Keng Kang apartment building.
Dozens of foreign workers were taken from a central Phnom Penh condominium under heavy police presence and driven straight to the airport on Thursday.
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.
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.
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.
VOD is an independent media outlet producing radio programs and disseminating information to the public via the Internet.
© 2019 VOD. All Rights Reserved.
