Reuters · United Kingdom · Bangkok Post
Cambodia scam centres still operating despite crackdowns, says Amnesty
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PHNOM PENH — Dozens of suspected global scam compounds in Cambodia are still in operation despite a months-long crackdown by authorities, Amnesty International said in a report on Monday. Of 86 sites identified as scam centres, the government had intervened at only 24 locations, the UK-based human rights group said in the 176-page report.
Key facts
- Phnom Penh and other countries have been pressured to crack down by foreign governments such as the United States, which estimates Americans lost US$10 billion to Southeast Asian scam centres in 2024.
- PHNOM PENH — Dozens of suspected global scam compounds in Cambodia are still in operation despite a months-long crackdown by authorities, Amnesty International said in a report on Monday
- Many of those (interventions) were often reactive, ineffective or undermined by apparent collusion between compound managers and police, with survivors reporting being moved across the country mid-crackdown to evade authorities,"
- Amnesty International said its researchers interviewed 73 people who had been held against their will at the compounds, and all said they had experienced or witnessed abuse, including six women who described being raped.
Summary
"Many of those (interventions) were often reactive, ineffective or undermined by apparent collusion between compound managers and police, with survivors reporting being moved across the country mid-crackdown to evade authorities," the report said. The government in Phnom Penh rejected Amnesty's findings.
"Cambodia does not accept the implication that it is failing to act against online scam operations," Chhay Sinarith, the senior minister in charge of combating online scams, said in a statement, calling the report "selective, one-sided, and lacking full understanding of the realities on the ground."