64 South Koreans held in Cambodia return home on chartered flight: Police
A close up picture shows a Cambodian flag waving in the wind in Phnom Penh. (Photo: AFP/Tang Chhin Sot)
SEOUL: Sixty-four South Koreans who had been detained in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyberscam operations returned home on Saturday (Oct 18), a police official told AFP.
South Korea had sent a team to Cambodia on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.
"A total of 64 nationals just arrived at the Incheon International Airport on a chartered flight," the official said.
Seoul had said around 60 South Koreans had been detained by authorities in Cambodia over the alleged crimes, and vowed to bring them home.
National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac previously said the detained individuals included both "voluntary and involuntary participants" in scam operations.
Touch Sokhak, a spokesman for Cambodia's interior ministry, told AFP on Friday that the repatriation agreement was the "result of good cooperation in suppression of scams between the two countries".
Seoul has said about 1,000 South Koreans were estimated to be among a total of around 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia.
Some are forced under threat of violence to execute "pig-butchering" scams - cryptocurrency investment schemes that build trust with victims over time before stealing their funds.
The multibillion-dollar illicit industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands of people perpetrating online scams, some willingly and others forced by the organised criminal groups running the fraud networks, experts say.
