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Cambodian police on Thursday said they have arrested 57 South Korean nationals over alleged ties to an online scam organization in the Southeast Asian country.
The arrests came on Wednesday when police raided a building on the outskirts of the capital. phnom penh, Police 86 people were found working at the compound, including 57 South Koreans and 29 SugarAccording to a statement on Thursday by the secretariat of Cambodia’s commission to combat online scams.
A visiting group of South Korean lawmakers was also involved in the raid. The delegation, led by Kim Seok-ki, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday as part of an on-site parliamentary inspection into reports of alleged employment scams, illegal imprisonment and torture of South Korean citizens.
It is the second recent South Korean delegation to visit Cambodia, following a group last week led by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jin.
On Friday last week, Cambodia repatriated about 50 South Koreans who were formally arrested on charges of working for online scam organizations.
They are among 64 South Koreans who were detained in Cambodia in recent months and flown to South Korea on a charter flight on Saturday. Upon arrival, they were detained while police investigated whether they had voluntarily joined scam organizations in Cambodia or were forced to work there.
The repatriation follows the death of a South Korean student who was allegedly forced to work in a scam center in Cambodia. His death sparked public outrage in South Korea, forcing the government to send a delegation to Phnom Penh to negotiate a joint response.
Online scams, many of which are based in Southeast Asian countries, have grown exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic and have generated two groups of victims: tens of thousands of people who have been forced to act as scammers under threat of violence, and the targets of their fraud. Watchdog groups say international criminal gangs earn billions of dollars annually from online scams.
The Korean National Police Agency said Tuesday that local courts have issued arrest warrants for 49 of the 64 people returned so far. It said a court would review on Tuesday whether to approve the arrest of 10 more people. Police had earlier said the 59 people were accused of engaging in online fraudulent activities such as romantic scams, fake investment pitches or voice phishing, apparently targeting fellow South Koreans at home.
A statement Thursday from the secretariat of Cambodia’s commission to combat online scams said police seized 126 laptops and 30 handphones in the raid.
It said Cambodian police had shared materials with the Korean parliamentary delegation, which showed that the Korean nationals who worked at the scam center did so voluntarily, without any force or threat.
Over the past four months, police have raided 92 locations in 18 provinces and arrested 3,455 people from 20 countries, the statement said. Most were victims and have already been deported from Cambodia. Seventy-five people believed to be behind the scams have been charged in a Cambodian court.