JakartaGlobe-Oct 22
At least 110 Indonesian nationals have escaped from online scam syndicates operating in Cambodia, though not all of them have agreed to return home, Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Wednesday. “We are still providing assistance to them. We’ll see later whether all of them wish to come home or not, because in some cases, after we help them, they choose not to return,” Sugiono told reporters at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta.
He said each individual has personal reasons for declining repatriation, and that the government cannot force their return. Sugiono added that the Indonesian government continues to coordinate with Cambodian authorities to ensure the safe return and legal protection of its citizens who fall victim to such criminal syndicates. The case surfaced shortly after Myanmar’s military authorities dismantled a major online fraud network near the Thai border, detaining more than 2,000 suspects and seizing dozens of Starlink satellite terminals, according to state media reports earlier this week. Both Myanmar and Cambodia have long been identified as regional hubs for transnational online scam operations, which often use romance scams or fake investment schemes to target victims around the world. Perpetrators typically lure foreign workers with offers of legitimate employment, only to detain them and force them to work in online scam centers. In July, Cambodian authorities arrested more than 1,000 suspects, including hundreds of Indonesian nationals, in a major crackdown on cyber fraud networks. According to an Associated Press report, at least 270 Indonesians, including 45 women, were detained in Poipet, a border town notorious for cyber scams and gambling operations. Read more at:
