Cambodia hands over 119 Thais in cyber scam crackdown

BANGKOK – Cambodia said on March 1 it deported 119 Thais across the two countries’ shared border, the latest handover in a regional crackdown on illegal cyber-scam centres.

Cambodia’s immigration department said in a post on its Facebook page that the Thais – 61 men and 58 women – “snuck in to work and stayed illegally” in Thailand.

They were among 230 foreigners detained during raids on alleged cyber-scam centres in the border city of Poipet on Feb 22 and 23, it said.

The Thais were deported via the Poipet border checkpoint on March 1, it added.

Cyber-scam centres – which lure foreigners to work in scam hothouses swindling people with online romance and crypto investment cons – have proliferated across South-east Asia in recent years.

The Cambodian authorities launched high-profile raids on the illegal compounds in late 2022.

The March 1 handover came a day after Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra visited Sa Kaeo, the Thai town neighbouring Poipet, to “eliminate call centre gangs”, she said in a post on social media platform X.

Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai confirmed in a post on X that the 119 Thais had been returned from Cambodia.

Both the Thai and Cambodian authorities said the workers were paid to commit fraud online and worked voluntarily.

A frontier town known for its casinos, Poipet has become a hub for cyber-scam centres and online gambling operations.

The repatriations come as Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia have ramped up efforts to curb a cyber-scam industry worth billions of dollars a year, with the United Nations estimating as many as 120,000 people may be working in Myanmar scam centres.

Many workers say they were lured or tricked into the scam centres by promises of high-paying jobs before they were effectively held hostage, their passports taken from them