FILE PHOTO: A boy plays near a building, where some people trafficked under false pretences are being forced to work in online scams targeting people all over the world, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Feb. 9, 2025. - AP
SEOUL: Two South Koreans detained in a crime crackdown by Cambodian authorities returned home on Friday (Oct 17) police said, a day after Phnom Penh announced plans to deport 59 Koreans accused of working in cyberscam operations.
South Korea sent a team to the South-East Asian country on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.
Seoul has said 63 South Koreans had been detained by authorities in Cambodia, and vowed to bring them home.
Two South Koreans who had been awaiting "repatriation from Cambodia arrived at the Incheon International Airport" on Friday, an official from the Korean National Police Agency told AFP.
The official did not provide any further detail on what the two South Koreans had been doing in Cambodia.
Another two also returned to South Korea from Cambodia earlier this week, he added, without clarifying whether the four had been deported by authorities.
Seoul's National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said the 63 South Koreans included both "voluntary and involuntary participants" in scam operations.
An official from South Korea's foreign ministry told AFP the government was not yet able to share details on the return of its nationals Cambodia said it would deport.
Seoul has said about 1,000 South Koreans were estimated to be among a total of around 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia.
Some are forced under threat of violence to execute "pig butchering" scams -cryptocurrency investment schemes that build trust with victims over time before stealing their funds.
The multibillion-dollar illicit industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands of people perpetrating online scams, some willingly and others forced by the organised criminal groups running the fraud networks, experts say. - AFP
