Cambodia cybercrime crackdown arrest tally hits 2,000
PHNOM PENH (AFP): The number of suspects arrested in a Cambodian crackdown on internet scam centres has risen to 2,000, a government minister told AFP on Friday.
The United Nations has described Southeast Asia as the "ground zero" of cybercrime centres, where workers typically use romance or business cons to defraud web users of an estimated $40 billion annually.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet this week issued a directive telling law enforcement and the military to clamp down on the internet sweatshops or risk losing their jobs.
Information minister Neth Pheaktra, a member of a committee to combat online scams, told AFP authorities had expanded the scope of their raids to nine of the country's 25 provinces.
"So far some 2,000 suspects have been arrested," he said, adding that the suspects include Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Indian nationals.
Neth Preaktra said the government wants to make the country "no safe haven for online scammers" and "will dismantle every scam network no matter where they hide".
At least 226 Chinese nationals were among the detained suspects, according to a police report, which said some ringleaders would face prosecution in Cambodia while most others will be expelled.
The justice ministry also said it had suspended one prosecutor pending an investigation after he released several cybercrime suspects.
Abuses in Cambodia's scam centres are happening on a "mass scale", Amnesty International said in a report published last month.
There are at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia where organised criminal groups carry out human trafficking, forced labour, child labour, torture, deprivation of liberty and slavery, the report said.
Many of those freed from Southeast Asian scam centres say they were trafficked or lured there under false pretences.
In March, Cambodia deported 119 Thais -- among 230 foreign nationals detained during raids on alleged cyber scam centres in Poipet city. - AFP
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