The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said they have been actively providing cooperation with foreign embassies in Cambodia in the last six months after the embassies requested assistance to help their citizens who had been scammed and fallen into forced labour in the Kingdom.

Foreign ministry spokesman Chum Sounry told reporters that requests had come from the embassies of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. The Ministry actively responded to those requests and worked with the relevant authorities to resolve the incidents.

“The ministry has closely worked with the relevant institutions to take action immediately whenever the suspicion of human trafficking activities exists,” he said.

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said earlier this week that criminal gangs had used Cambodia’s shortcomings to conduct scams in the past, but the Kingdom was now targeting these crooks.

On August 26, Kheng said that in August the authorities had carried out operations to intervene in seven cases of trafficking and rescued 26 people of six different nationalities. 23 suspects from four different countries have been detained in Preah Sihanouk, Pursat, Svay Rieng and Oddar Meanchey provinces.