Five more job scam victims return from Cambodia

SEPANG: Five more Malaysians believed to have been forced to work for scam syndicates in Cambodia have been brought back home.

Bukit Aman CID director Comm Datuk Seri Abd Jalil Hassan said the five were brought back following a police delegation to Cambodia in connection with alleged work scam crimes there.

"With the cooperation and coordination of the police, Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Malaysian Embassy in Cambodia, a delegation was sent with representatives from Wisma Putra from Jan 24 to 27.

"We held talks with the Cambodian authorities and I am touched by the gesture of the Cambodian Immigration Department for releasing five Malaysians who were detained at a detention centre there.

"I was told that based on normal procedure, it would have taken at least a month for them to be released but after holding talks, the Immigration Department there agreed to release them so that we could bring them home," he told reporters at the KL International Airport on Friday (Jan 27).

He said that as of Jan 26 this year, a total of 262 police reports have been lodged and a total of 218 individuals have been brought home while 113 others remain stuck abroad in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and other countries.

"In Cambodia, we have determined that 145 victims were stuck there and we managed to bring home 116 so far while the 29 others are believed to still be there," he said.