Authorities in Sihanoukville, Cambodia announced on Sunday that a raid last week uncovered evidence of forced labor cybercrime syndicates that participated in human trafficking and torture.
The five-day operation led to the discovery of 130 Chinese immigrants and 11 from Vietnamese, mostly all male, who had entered the country illegally, with 262 more foreigners working without permits.
More alarming were the other items found in the raid: four guns, 804 desktops, 16 laptops, 36 passports, 12 data storage devices, four pairs of handcuffs, eight electric batons, two “electric shock torches,” and 8,776 phones. Twenty-seven foreigners were sent in for questioning and 262 foreigners working without work permits were fined.
The authorities vowed to “take strict legal action” against foreigners that remain in illegal employment after being warned as well as the enterprises who use their labor.
The raid was one of several across the Southeast Asian country last week on buildings known, as an open secret, to be online forced labor companies. According to advocacy group Global Anti-scam Org, the companies are largely owned by businesses based in China.
The raids…
