Dozens of South Koreans who had been detained in Cambodia over allegations of being involved in cyberscam operations have returned home under arrest and will now face a criminal probe.
Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak had said earlier that 64 South Koreans were to be repatriated from his county.
The South Korean suspectes were flown home on a chartered flightImage: Heng Sinith/AP Photo/picture alliance
Repatriated South Koreans arrested on plane
A chartered plane carrying the suspects landed in South Korea’s main Incheon International Airport on Saturday morning.
They were arrested on board, shortly after getting on the plane, news agency AFP cited a South Korean official as saying.
The repatriated individuals were seen in handcuffs, wearing masks and caps, as each of them were escorted by two police officers each.
Video footage showed the accused being led to a parking area where security vehicles were waiting to transport them.
The returnees are implicated in various crimes linked to voice phishing, romance scams and so-called “no-show” fraud schemes, Park Sung-joo, head of the National Office of Investigation, said while addressing the media at the airport.
He added that there had been suspicions of drug use in Cambodia,”so all of those returned will undergo drug testing as a standard procedure”.
South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said that the returnees were detained in Cambodia during crackdowns on scam centers.
Authorities are likely looking to find out whether they had joined the organizations on their own will or were forced to work after being lured by false job advertisements.
Outrage over killing of South Korean student in Cambodia
The repatriation comes after public outcry over the death of a South Korean student who was reportedly forced to work in a scam center in South Korea.
The student was found dead in a pickup truck in August after he was reportedly kidnapped and tortured by a crime ring.
As per a Cambodian court statement, the autopsy showed he “died as a result of severe torture, with multiple bruises and injuries across his body”.
The incident prompted Seoul to send a delegation to Phnom Penh to discuss joint responses.
Scam centers located in Cambodia are estimated to have about 200,000 workers, including 1,000 people from South Koreans, according to estimates from South Korean officials.
Right groups have reported widespread abuses in scam centers in CambodiaImage: Agence Kampuchea Press/AFP
‘Trafficking and torture’
Rights group Amnesty International says abuses in Cambodia’s scam centers are happening on a “mass scale”.
It says that there are at least 53 scam compounds in the southeast Asian nation where organised criminal groups carry out human trafficking, forced labour, torture, deprivation of liberty and slavery.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry in Seoul on Thursday issued a “code-black” travel ban for parts of Cambodia, including Bokor Mountain in Kampot province, where the South Korean student was found dead.
A “code-black” ban is the most serious travel embargo, with orders for citizens to leave.
The ministry cited recent increases in cases of detention and “fraudulent employment” as the reason for the ban.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has requested easing of the curbs, the ministry said.
Freed captives describe scam operations in Myanmar
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Edited by: Saim Dušan Inayatullah
