The Human Toll of a Broken System
Eric, a young man from central Africa who fled active conflict in his home country, described his ordeal in stark terms after escaping one of Cambodia’s notorious cyber scam compounds.
“I was running from the war, and I got to a war again.”
This brutal reality now confronts thousands of foreign nationals stranded across Cambodia. Eric’s journey began when he received an email promising a monthly salary of $2,000 for administrative work. After months living in extreme deprivation while fleeing violence, the offer seemed like salvation. Upon arriving in Phnom Penh late last year, recruiters transported him directly to a fortified compound near the Thai border rather than an office.
Inside the facility, managers forced Eric to participate in online fraud operations targeting victims worldwide through romance scams and fake investment schemes. When he attempted to warn one target that they were being defrauded, compound bosses discovered his actions and subjected him to a savage beating. “They beat me to the point I thought I might die,” he later recounted. In the following weeks, he witnessed other workers suffering severe abuse and mysterious disappearances. One colleague jumped from a window in an apparent suicide and was never seen again.
Eric’s first opportunity for escape came unexpectedly during military clashes between Thailand and Cambodia over their shared border. He fled during the chaos, but traffickers quickly recaptured him and moved him to another facility where he endured another month of captivity before finally escaping again in mid-January. Today, Eric remains stranded in Cambodia without a passport, money, or family connections. He lives in constant fear while dreaming of finding any country where he can start over. He does not even know if his family back home survived the war.
A Mass Exodus Onto the Streets
Eric is among thousands of trafficking survivors now abandoned on the streets of Cambodian cities following a sudden government crackdown on the nation’s lucrative cyber scam industry. The mass release of workers from compounds across the country has created what Amnesty International describes as a humanitarian catastrophe. In Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Kampot, and Siem Reap, groups of Asians, Africans, South Americans, and Europeans wheel suitcases through the streets or sleep in public parks, desperately seeking assistance from overwhelmed embassies.
The crisis erupted after Cambodian authorities arrested Chinese tycoon Chen Zhi, whom the United States Justice Department identified as the mastermind behind a sprawling cyberfraud empire. Chen, founder of the Prince Group conglomerate, was extradited to China in early January, triggering panic throughout the scam industry. Nine days later, China offered leniency to fugitives associated with Chen if they surrendered, causing compound operators to suddenly open their gates and release workers en masse to avoid being caught harboring trafficked laborers.
The scale of displacement is staggering. The Indonesian Embassy reported that more than 3,400 citizens sought consular assistance between mid-January and late January, with arrivals exceeding 200 people daily. Ugandan and Ghanaian officials confirmed approximately 300 stranded nationals each, while Kenya reported more than 200 citizens requiring help. Many of these individuals lack passports, valid visas, or money for basic necessities. While China and Indonesia negotiated temporary accommodation facilities for their citizens, survivors from African nations without diplomatic representation in Cambodia have been turned away from international agencies citing resource constraints. Many now sleep on sidewalks or crowd into cheap guesthouses that accept undocumented people, living in fear as police conduct inspections hunting for immigration violators.
Inside the Scam Factories
To understand the desperation of these survivors, one must comprehend the industrial-scale horror of Cambodia’s scam compounds. These facilities, often converted casinos and hotels in cities like Sihanoukville and border towns near Thailand, function as prison-like labor camps where criminal gangs force trafficked workers to execute sophisticated online fraud. The operations generate between $12 billion and $19 billion annually through romance scams, fake cryptocurrency investments, and pig butchering schemes where victims are befriended over months before being financially exploited.
Amnesty International researchers documented conditions resembling slavery across more than 50 compounds. Workers typically arrive after responding to social media advertisements promising high salaries and luxury accommodations including swimming pools. Upon entry, they discover barbed wire perimeters, armed security guards carrying electric batons and firearms, and surveillance cameras monitoring every movement. Survivors report being sold between compounds or told they must pay off debts through labor. Those who fail to meet scamming quotas or attempt to contact authorities face torture in designated dark rooms.
Recent testimony gathered from 35 survivors who escaped in recent weeks reveals gruesome abuses. Several women reported rape by compound managers, with at least two becoming pregnant as a result of sexual assault. Other survivors described witnessing a man having his finger chopped off and another whose throat was cut while attempting to escape. Beatings with metal poles and electric shock batons were routine. Medical care was systematically denied, leading to preventable deaths. One survivor named Delilah told Amnesty International that her compound saw so many deaths that workers pooled money to help repatriate bodies, but managers refused medical assistance to the sick. “We had to force our way out because one guy is sick and he doesn’t want to die,” she explained, describing how guards fired shots in the air as they fled.
The XXL Crackdown: Genuine Shift or Political Theater?
Cambodian authorities have framed their response as a decisive break with the past. Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak announced the “XXL” operation, setting an April deadline to completely eradicate online scams from Cambodian soil. Officials report closing nearly 200 scam centers at 190 locations nationwide, arresting 173 senior crime figures, and deporting over 11,000 foreign workers in recent weeks. The government granted rare media access to an abandoned compound in Sihanoukville, showing empty rooms stripped of computers but with infrastructure largely intact.
However, analysts and human rights organizations question whether these raids represent a genuine policy shift or a calculated response to international pressure. The United States and United Kingdom recently imposed their largest-ever sanctions against a Southeast Asian cyber fraud network, targeting Chen Zhi’s Prince Group and initiating a $15 billion Bitcoin forfeiture action, the largest such action in Department of Justice history. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control unveiled sanctions against networks across the region, while a new District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force was created to combat Southeast Asian cryptocurrency fraud.
Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center who researches transnational crime networks, argues that the current crackdown avoids the most powerful elites. “The fact that none of these raids have targeted the major, well-known scam compounds is exactly the point,” Sims stated. “This is a tightly orchestrated exercise designed to produce the appearance of decisive action while preserving the core industry and the interests of the involved elites.” Sims has recommended indictments and sanctions for 28 government officials and businesspeople, including Prime Minister Hun Manet’s cousin Hun To, for alleged complicity in the industry. Reports indicate that compounds in Poipet and Koh Kong continue operating, while field observers note that Poipet has remained conspicuously quiet during the raids. The physical infrastructure of raided compounds remains guarded and ready for reactivation, suggesting the industry could resume operations quickly if pressure subsides.
Systemic Failures Leave Survivors Unprotected
While the crackdown generates headlines, the humanitarian response has collapsed. Amnesty International reports that Cambodian authorities are failing to identify trafficking victims or provide protection, instead treating escaped workers as immigration violators subject to fines and detention. Police conduct regular inspections of hotels and homes to check documentation, causing survivors to live in fear of arrest. The International Organization for Migration, which maintains a mandate to assist vulnerable migrants, has reportedly denied assistance to survivor groups despite repeated requests from rescuers including Ling Li, a modern slavery researcher. “If international institutions with victim protection in their mandate cannot provide protection, emergency assistance, or even a safe space for trafficking survivors, what is their role on the ground?” Li questioned.
Embassies from various nations have been overwhelmed by the volume of requests. While Indonesia and China secured temporary housing for their citizens, other countries lack the diplomatic capacity to assist. Kenya obtained waivers for overstay fines, but survivors must still raise funds for flights home. Survivors from nations without Cambodian embassies report being stonewalled by bureaucracy and turned away from aid organizations citing resource constraints following widespread funding cuts to NGO operations.
Chou Bun Eng, Permanent Vice Chair of Cambodia’s National Committee to Counter Trafficking, defended the government’s approach, stating that screening procedures exist but prioritizing detailed trafficking investigations would strain detention facilities. She called for shared responsibility with countries of origin to repatriate citizens. However, Am Sam Ath, deputy director of the human rights group LICADHO, observed that the crackdown launched without adequate preparation for its human consequences, leaving thousands running between buildings in chaos without proper investigation into who are victims versus criminals.
The Persistent Threat of Re-Trafficking
The danger for stranded survivors extends beyond homelessness and hunger. Industry monitors report that scam syndicates continue recruiting workers from the very population of stranded foreigners, exploiting their desperation for survival. Job advertisements circulate on Telegram and other platforms targeting individuals who lack money for flights home, offering purported opportunities to earn airfare quickly. These offers represent a direct pipeline back into slavery for traumatized individuals who have already endured torture and forced labor.
Geographic monitoring reveals that while some compounds have emptied, scam operations persist in border regions. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime notes that criminal groups have adapted to enforcement by fragmenting into smaller units, relocating at night, and utilizing temporary closures to avoid detection. Crime syndicates have also been detected running similar compounds in Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and Pacific islands outside Southeast Asia. The United Nations estimates that at least 100,000 people remain trapped in Cambodian scam operations, with at least 120,000 more across Myanmar, while the regional industry generates approximately $64 billion annually.
For survivors like Eric, the psychological trauma compounds the physical danger. Many witnessed murders, suicides, and systematic torture. They require urgent mental health support and safe shelter while awaiting repatriation. Instead, they face the threat of being trafficked again into the same compounds they just escaped, or sleeping on streets where police hunt for undocumented foreigners. Without coordinated international intervention to provide emergency documentation, funding for flights, and temporary safe housing, the advantage remains with the criminal networks that profit from human suffering.
Key Points
- Thousands of trafficking survivors who escaped Cambodia’s scam compounds are stranded on the streets without passports, money, or humanitarian support following a government crackdown on cyber fraud operations.
- The crisis was triggered by the arrest and extradition of Chinese tycoon Chen Zhi, accused of running a billion-dollar cyberfraud empire, and subsequent panic among compound operators who released workers en masse.
- Survivors from over 66 countries, including Indonesia, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, and China, are sleeping in public parks and crowding embassy gates while Cambodian authorities treat them as immigration violators rather than trafficking victims.
- Testimony from recent escapees reveals systematic torture, rape, murder, and slavery-like conditions inside the compounds, with some survivors reporting pregnancies resulting from sexual assault and witnessing deaths from denied medical care.
- Analysts question the authenticity of the “XXL” crackdown, noting that major compounds linked to political elites remain untouched while smaller operations are raided, suggesting the campaign may be performative rather than a genuine effort to dismantle the industry.
- The International Organization for Migration and various embassies have failed to provide adequate emergency assistance, leaving survivors vulnerable to re-trafficking as scam syndicates actively recruit from the stranded population.
