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.
Many guesthouses and hotels across Poipet have been fully booked out by “online” companies to house their foreign workers, turning the city into a boomtown for the hazy work.
Workers stuck inside the Grand Diamond City Casino told VOD their harrowing accounts of escaping the burning buildings, with the incident also raising serious questions about fire safety measures in the casino.
The body of a Chinese man was found in a local stream after the man’s girlfriend posted online that he went missing from Poipet city, offering a $100,000 reward to find him.
Kampong Chhnang authorities said the shutdown of a local volleyball court over alleged gambling on games was part of a crackdown on scam operations ordered by Hun Sen.
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.
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.
Thousands of viewers have circulated a video online of a woman pleading in Khmer for rescue from forced labor at a Sihanoukville scam center.
Police are questioning two U.S. men and one Indonesian woman who last week said they had been detained at an online business.
The Federation of Khmer Chinese in Cambodia on Wednesday pushed back on recent media reports of rampant human trafficking linked to scams.
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