Dozens of South Koreans detained in Cambodia over their involvement in a cyber scam have returned home after their arrest and now face criminal investigation.
Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Touch Sokhak had earlier said that 64 South Koreans were to be deported from their counties.
South Koreans who returned home were arrested on the plane
A chartered plane carrying the suspects landed at South Korea’s main Incheon International Airport on Saturday morning.
News agency AFP quoted a South Korean official as saying that he was arrested immediately after boarding the plane.
The brought back persons were seen wearing handcuffs, masks and caps as each of them was accompanied by two police officers.
Video footage showed the accused being taken to a parking area, where security vehicles were waiting to take them away.
Park Sung-ju, head of the National Investigation Office, addressing the media at the airport, said the returnees have been implicated in various crimes involving voice phishing, romance scams and so-called “no-show” fraud schemes.
He said drug use was suspected in Cambodia, “so all returnees will be required to undergo drug testing as a standard procedure”.
South Korea’s national security adviser Wi Sung-lak said the returnees were detained during a crackdown on scam centers in Cambodia.
Officials are trying to find out whether they had joined the organizations of their own free will or were forced to work after being lured by false job advertisements.
Outrage over murder of South Korean student in Cambodia
The repatriation comes after a public outcry over the death of a South Korean student who was allegedly forced to work at a scam center in South Korea.
The student was found dead in a pickup truck in August after allegedly being kidnapped and tortured by a crime gang.
According to the Cambodian court statement, the autopsy revealed that “she died as a result of severe torture, with multiple lacerations and bruises all over her body”.
The incident prompted Seoul to send a delegation to Phnom Penh to discuss joint responses.
South Korean authorities estimate that there are approximately 200,000 employees in scam centers located in Cambodia, including 1,000 South Koreans.
‘Trafficking and torture’
Rights group Amnesty International says abuses in Cambodia’s scam centers are “rampant”.
It said there are at least 53 scam complexes in the Southeast Asian nation where organized 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 the Bokor Mountains in Kampot province, where the South Korean student was found dead.
A “code-black” ban is the most severe travel ban, in which citizens are ordered to leave the country.
The ministry cited a recent increase in cases of detention and “fraudulent employment” as reasons for the ban.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has requested an easing of restrictions, the ministry said.
Edited by: Sam Dusan Inayatullah