PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet pledged to step up a crackdown on transnational online scam networks, but warned the criminal syndicates are adapting by fracturing into smaller, decentralized cells across the region.
Authorities have already shut down more than 670 illegal scam operations while expanding intelligence sharing with key international law enforcement partners, he said, including during a visit this week with US Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel.
"We will make Cambodia become an area that’s not easy or worth to stay for scams,” Hun Manet said Thursday (July 23) in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Avril Hong.
Online scam centers have proliferated across South-East Asia since the pandemic, turning Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos into hubs for criminal enterprises. Although local agencies have stepped up enforcement, rights groups suggest the impact remains limited.
"It’s become more complex,” said Hun Manet. "Technology has allowed them to work in a decentralised manner.”
Hun Manet assumed the premiership in August 2023, marking a once-in-a-generation transition that saw his father, Hun Sen, step down after nearly four decades.
A West Point graduate, the 48-year-old leader has projected a more technocratic style of governing, while maintaining an authoritarian grip that has kept the Cambodian People’s Party in power since the Khmer Rouge was overthrown in 1979. Hun Sen, meanwhile, continues to wield significant influence as President of the Senate and head of the ruling party.
Cambodia has come under significant international pressure over scam compounds, including from both Washington and Beijing. Rights groups and the United Nations have said the multibillion-dollar scams, and related human-trafficking industries, operate with the complicity and protection of elements close to the country’s political and business elite.
The US, for example, has targeted prominent Cambodian senators Ly Yong Phat and Kok An with sanctions due to their alleged involvement in human trafficking, forced labor and cyber scam compound networks that defrauded American citizens.
Hun Manet described those designations as legal matters being fought in court. He also said state agencies actively investigate cases involving both government officials and business executives.
"We have taken action against a number of officials,” including the dismissal and prosecution of military generals and provincial governors, he said.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report this week that the combined losses last year from scams across East Asia, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand are estimated as much as US$114 billion.
Turning to border tensions with Thailand, Hun Manet urged Bangkok to immediately resume joint boundary demarcation talks so more than 20,000 displaced citizens can return to their homes in the border provinces.
While there is a ceasefire since the conflict broke out a year ago, "it remains fragile because thousands of troops are still stationed face-to-face along the border,” he said.
He further called Thai claims that Cambodia’s pursuit of UN maritime conciliation justifies halting land-border negotiations "inaccurate and a little bit unfair.” Hun Manet stressed that land demarcation and maritime discussions remain legally separate under existing bilateral frameworks.
"For now, at this stage, let’s focus on getting the process moving,” he said. - Bloomberg
