PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has expelled nearly 18,000 foreign online scam suspects this year amid an ongoing crackdown on cybercrime, an immigration official said Tuesday (Aug 11).
Lieutenant General Sok Veasna, director general of the General Department of Immigration, said that anti-online fraud operations have scaled up sharply since the beginning of 2026.
"From Jan. 1 to Aug. 9, we deported more than 50,000 foreigners, including over 17,700 online scam suspects," he told reporters.
The remaining deportees consisted of individuals holding invalid documents, such as expired passports, expired visas, or missing work permits, and foreign fugitives, among others.
Thong Mengdavid, deputy director of the China-Asean Studies Centereat the Cambodia University of Technology and Science, said while mass deportations are a long-overdue step toward salvaging Cambodia's reputation and disrupting massive cyber-scam networks, they remain a temporary fix.
"To truly win this fight, Cambodia must target high-level kingpins and dismantle the local protection networks that allow these operations to thrive," he stressed.
He emphasised that the root of the problem will persist until the underlying issues of human trafficking and corruption are fully addressed.
The South-East Asian nation has launched an unprecedented nationwide crackdown on cyber-scam networks to protect public safety and restore its international image. - Xinhua
