An order from the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet instructing government bodies to target cybercrime has resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects across the country. Hundreds of mobile phones and computers were also seized by the police during the raids.
Suspects were arrested from at least five different provinces across the country. According to SecurityWeek, these include more than 200 Vietnamese, 27 Chinese, 75 Taiwanese, and 85 Cambodian from the capital city of Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville alone.
Additionally, another 279 Indonesians, including 45 women, were arrested from Poipet — a town notorious for cybercrime activity located on the border alongside Thailand. 312 arrests were also made in the province of Kratie, including foreign nationals from Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Last but not least, 27 individuals from China, Myanmar, and Vietnam were also arrested in the western province of Pursat.
Prime Minister Manet issued the order to maintain and protect security, public order, and social safety. However, there are other concerns Cambodia needs to be concerned about when it comes to cybercrime. An Amnesty International report, the result of an 18-month-long investigation into cybercrime in the country, reveals that the state is complicit in “abuses carried out by Chinese gangs.”
More specifically, the report alleges that the “Cambodian government is deliberately ignoring a litany of human rights abuses, including slavery, human trafficking, child labor, and torture being carried out by criminal gangs on a vast scale in more than 50 scamming compounds located across the country.”
Job seekers from Asia and beyond are trapped by offers of lucrative pay and benefits, only to be smuggled into “hellish labour camps run by well-organised gangs.” Digital slavery is a growing concern in the region, with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) having to step in to save over 500 Indians from similar camps in Myanmar.
Cambodia also isn’t a part of the Lancang-Mekong Law Enforcement Cooperation (LMLEC). The LMLEC is a coalition of six nations, including China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, working to rid the border regions of Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand of cyber scam slave camps.
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