Cambodia's Scam Crackdown Leaves Thousands of Trafficking Survivors Stranded

Escape From Scam Compounds Leaves Survivors Without Safety

More than 3,400 Indonesians sought consular help in Cambodia between the middle and end of January, joining stranded people from more than 66 countries after a government crackdown sent thousands out of cyber scam compounds. By February 11, 2026, survivors were sleeping in parks, gathering outside embassies and searching for accommodation without passports, valid visas or money.

Cambodian officials say their campaign has closed nearly 200 scam centers at 190 locations, led to the arrest of 173 senior crime figures and resulted in the deportation of more than 11,000 foreign workers in recent weeks. Amnesty International describes the human consequences as a humanitarian catastrophe: people escaping forced labor and torture are reaching the streets without the protection they need.

Eric, a young man from central Africa, had already fled an active conflict before an offer of administrative work brought him to Cambodia. Describing his experience after escaping a scam compound, he said:

I was running from the war, and I got to a war again.

His experience captures the danger facing survivors after release. Leaving a compound ends their immediate captivity, but many remain unable to return home, obtain medical care or find somewhere safe to sleep. Those without documents also fear immigration inspections and detention.

Across Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Kampot and Siem Reap, Asians, Africans, South Americans and Europeans have been seen wheeling suitcases through the streets or sleeping in public parks. Embassies are overwhelmed, aid organizations cite limited resources, and criminal recruiters are approaching the same people who have just escaped exploitation.

A Promise of $2,000 a Month Became Captivity

Eric received an email offering a monthly salary of $2,000 for administrative work after spending months in extreme deprivation while fleeing violence. The promise appeared to offer a way to rebuild his life. When he arrived in Phnom Penh late in 2025, recruiters took him directly to a fortified compound near the Thai border instead of an office.

Managers forced him to carry out online fraud targeting people around the world through romance scams and fake investment schemes. When he tried to warn one target that they were being defrauded, his bosses discovered what he had done and beat him.

Eric described the severity of the assault:

They beat me to the point I thought I might die,

Over the following weeks, he witnessed severe abuse and unexplained disappearances. One colleague jumped from a window in an apparent suicide and was never seen again.

Military clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along their shared border gave Eric his first chance to flee. Traffickers quickly recaptured him, moved him to another facility and held him for another month. He escaped again in the middle of January.

Eric now has no passport, money or family connections in Cambodia. He lives in constant fear and hopes to find a country where he can start again. He does not know whether his family survived the war at home.

Chen Zhi's Arrest Set Off a Mass Release

The immediate crisis followed the arrest of Chinese tycoon Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince Group conglomerate. The United States Justice Department identified him as the mastermind behind a sprawling cyberfraud empire. Cambodian authorities extradited him to China in early January.

Nine days later, China offered leniency to fugitives associated with Chen if they surrendered. Panic spread through the scam industry, and operators began opening compound gates and releasing workers in large numbers to avoid being caught harboring trafficked laborers.

The events unfolded in a rapid sequence:

• Late in 2025: Eric arrived in Phnom Penh after accepting a promised administrative job and was taken to a compound near the Thai border.
• Early January 2026: Chen Zhi was extradited to China following his arrest in Cambodia.
• Nine days after the extradition: China offered leniency to associated fugitives who surrendered.
• Middle of January: Eric escaped captivity for a second time as releases from compounds added to the number of stranded foreigners.
• Middle to late January: More than 3,400 Indonesians sought assistance from their embassy.
• April: Cambodian authorities have set a deadline to eradicate online scams from the country.

The releases have left people with very different needs seeking help at once. Some need replacement travel documents and flights. Others also need treatment for injuries, protection from traffickers and support after witnessing deaths or surviving sexual violence.

Embassies Face Hundreds of Requests Each Day

The Indonesian Embassy recorded more than 200 arrivals a day during the January surge. Ugandan and Ghanaian officials each confirmed approximately 300 stranded nationals, while Kenya reported more than 200 citizens needing assistance.

China and Indonesia negotiated temporary accommodation for their citizens. Survivors from African countries without diplomatic representation in Cambodia have faced greater difficulty obtaining help. Some have been turned away by international agencies citing resource constraints.

People without passports, valid visas or money have few places to go. Some sleep on sidewalks, while others crowd into cheap guesthouses willing to accept undocumented guests. Police inspections of hotels and homes, intended to find immigration violators, leave them afraid of arrest even after escaping captivity.

Kenya obtained waivers for immigration overstay fines, but survivors still have to raise money for flights home. A fine waiver removes one expense; it leaves the separate cost of leaving Cambodia unresolved.

Countries without embassies in Cambodia have limited ability to assist their nationals locally. Survivors describe bureaucratic obstacles and rejection by aid organizations whose resources have been reduced by widespread funding cuts to nongovernmental operations.

How the Compounds Turn Jobs Into Forced Fraud

Cambodia's scam compounds often occupy former casinos and hotels in Sihanoukville and towns near the Thai border. Criminal gangs use them as prisonlike labor camps, forcing trafficked workers to carry out fraud against victims abroad.

The operations generate an estimated $12 billion to $19 billion a year through romance scams, false cryptocurrency investments and schemes known as pig butchering. In those schemes, scammers build a relationship with a target over months before persuading the person to hand over money.

Amnesty International researchers documented conditions resembling slavery across more than 50 compounds. Recruitment commonly begins with social media advertisements promising high salaries and luxury accommodation, including swimming pools.

Once workers arrive, the surroundings are very different: barbed wire, armed guards with electric batons and firearms, and cameras monitoring their movements. Survivors describe being sold from one compound to another or being told that their labor must repay a debt.

Managers impose scamming quotas. Workers who miss their targets or try to contact authorities can be taken to designated dark rooms and tortured. The same operations that deceive people online maintain control over their workforce through confinement, debt demands and violence.

Survivors Describe Sexual Violence and Preventable Deaths

Testimony gathered from 35 people who escaped in recent weeks describes rape, mutilation and killings. Several women said compound managers raped them, and at least two became pregnant as a result of sexual assault.

Other survivors described seeing a man's finger chopped off and another man's throat cut as he tried to escape. Beatings with metal poles and electric shock batons were routine. Survivors also described medical care being denied, leading to preventable deaths.

Delilah, a survivor who spoke to Amnesty International, said so many people died in her compound that workers pooled money to help send bodies home. Managers still refused medical assistance to people who were ill.

Explaining why workers forced their way out while guards fired shots into the air, Delilah said:

We had to force our way out because one guy is sick and he doesn't want to die,

Survivors who witnessed murders, suicides and repeated torture need urgent mental health support alongside treatment for physical injuries. Safe shelter is also essential while they wait for travel documents and repatriation. Many are instead trying to meet basic needs while living with the fear of detention or renewed captivity.

What Cambodia's XXL Operation Has Promised

Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak announced the campaign known as "XXL," with an April deadline to eliminate online scams from Cambodian territory. Authorities present the operation as a decisive break with the past.

Officials cite nearly 200 closed scam centers across 190 locations, 173 senior crime figures arrested and more than 11,000 foreign workers deported in recent weeks. The government also gave journalists rare access to an abandoned compound in Sihanoukville. Its rooms had been stripped of computers, while much of the infrastructure remained intact.

The campaign follows major international action against the networks. The United States and United Kingdom imposed their largest ever sanctions against a Southeast Asian cyber fraud network, targeting Chen's Prince Group.

United States authorities also initiated a $15 billion Bitcoin forfeiture action, described as the largest such action in Justice Department history. Forfeiture is the legal process through which authorities seek to take assets connected to alleged criminal activity.

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against networks across the region. A new District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force was created to combat cryptocurrency fraud originating in Southeast Asia.

Those measures put pressure on the businesses, finances and people associated with the industry. Inside Cambodia, the immediate test is whether enforcement reaches the operations and influential figures accused of sustaining it, while protecting the people found inside.

Why Researchers Question the Reach of the Raids

Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center who researches transnational crime networks, argues that the campaign has avoided the most powerful elites. He described the choice of targets as central to his concern:

The fact that none of these raids have targeted the major, well-known scam compounds is exactly the point,

Sims said the campaign was intended to show action while keeping the industry's foundations in place:

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 against 28 government officials and businesspeople for alleged complicity. They include Hun To, a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet.

Compounds in Poipet and Koh Kong reportedly continue operating. Field observers have described Poipet as conspicuously quiet during the raids, even as enforcement elsewhere has driven large numbers of foreigners onto the streets.

Physical infrastructure at raided compounds remains guarded and ready for reactivation. Buildings that retain their security arrangements and other facilities could return to operation quickly if pressure eases.

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime says criminal groups have adapted to enforcement by splitting into smaller units, moving at night and temporarily closing facilities to avoid detection. These changes make the continued movement of workers and operations part of the enforcement challenge.

Victim Protection Falls Behind Immigration Enforcement

Amnesty International says Cambodian authorities are failing to identify trafficking victims and provide protection, instead treating escaped workers as immigration violators who face fines and detention. Identifying victims means examining whether people were deceived, confined or forced to work, including being forced to commit fraud.

Chou Bun Eng, Permanent Vice Chair of Cambodia's National Committee to Counter Trafficking, defended the government's approach. She said screening procedures exist, but prioritizing detailed trafficking investigations would put pressure on detention facilities. She called for countries of origin to share responsibility for repatriating their citizens.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of the Cambodian human rights group LICADHO, said the crackdown began without adequate preparation for its human consequences. He described thousands of people moving between buildings in confusion, without proper investigation into who were victims and who were criminals.

The International Organization for Migration, whose mandate includes assisting vulnerable migrants, has reportedly denied help to groups of survivors despite repeated requests from rescuers. Modern slavery researcher Ling Li was among those seeking assistance.

Li questioned the response of international institutions responsible for victim protection:

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?

The response now depends heavily on nationality, diplomatic representation and access to money. Some survivors have temporary accommodation arranged by their governments. Others are trying to avoid police inspections while seeking organizations able to provide food, shelter or travel assistance.

Recruiters Are Targeting People Who Just Escaped

Scam syndicates continue recruiting among stranded foreigners, according to industry monitors. Advertisements on Telegram and other platforms offer people without airfare a supposed chance to earn money quickly enough to go home.

For someone sleeping outside or running out of money for a guesthouse, those offers can appear to provide an immediate answer. They also create a direct route back into the same forced labor from which survivors have escaped.

The danger extends beyond the Cambodian cities receiving people released from compounds. Criminal syndicates have been detected operating similar facilities in Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Pacific islands outside Southeast Asia.

United Nations estimates put the number of people trapped in Cambodian scam operations at at least 100,000, with at least another 120,000 in Myanmar. The estimate for Myanmar is 20,000 higher than Cambodia's, and the two figures together reach at least 220,000 people. The regional industry generates approximately $64 billion annually.

Cambodia's April deadline provides the next stated target for enforcement. Survivors need help before then: emergency documents, money for flights, temporary safe housing, medical treatment and mental health support. A coordinated international response would address the immediate gaps that recruiters exploit.

Eric remains among those waiting without a secure route out. His wish is to find somewhere he can rebuild his life, while he still lacks news of whether his family survived the conflict he fled.

Key Points

• Thousands of survivors from more than 66 countries are stranded in Cambodia after leaving scam compounds, many without passports, money or safe accommodation.
• Chen Zhi's extradition to China in early January, followed nine days later by an offer of leniency to associated fugitives, triggered panic and mass releases.
• More than 3,400 Indonesians sought consular help between the middle and end of January. Uganda and Ghana each reported approximately 300 stranded nationals, and Kenya reported more than 200.
• Recent testimony from 35 survivors describes rape, torture, killings and deaths after medical treatment was denied.
• Cambodian officials report nearly 200 centers closed at 190 locations, 173 senior crime figures arrested and more than 11,000 foreign workers deported. The government has set an April deadline to eradicate online scams.
• Researchers question whether enforcement is reaching powerful figures and major compounds, while operations reportedly continue in Poipet and Koh Kong.
• Limited shelter, immigration penalties and the cost of flights leave survivors exposed to recruiters offering another route into forced fraud.