The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted in the repatriation of 196 Cambodian citizens in the first half of 2016, according to a statement released this week.

The statement followed a Post story last week that revealed a maid had fled Saudi Arabia without assistance after suffering abuse.

Among the rescued citizens were 29 women from China, mostly married to Chinese men; 57 fishermen from Indonesia; and 65 workers from Malaysia.

“The evaluation of [its] activities to help overseas workers should be based on the actual work of the ministry . . . not based on an unrelated case or one that happened through lack of communication with the ministry,” the statement reads.

Earlier this year, a domestic worker was repatriated from Saudi Arabia after her relatives contacted the Cambodian Embassy in Kuwait. Cambodia does not have an embassy in Saudi Arabia, but an MoU on domestic workers was signed between the two countries in February.