SEOUL, South Korea — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Authorities are trying to formally arrest most 64 South Koreans repatriated from Cambodia for allegedly working for online fraud organization in Cambodia, police said Monday.
The 64 South Koreans were detained in Cambodia over the past few months and flown to Korea on a charter flight on Saturday. Upon arrival in South Korea, they were detained while police investigated whether they had voluntarily joined fraudulent organizations in Cambodia or were forced to work there.
Internet fraudmany of which are based in Southeast Asian countries, have risen sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic and have resulted in two sets of victims: tens of thousands of people forced to work by scammers under threat of violence, and victims of their scams. Monitoring groups say online fraud generates billions of dollars annually for international criminal gangs.
Government prosecutors have asked local courts to issue arrest warrants for 58 of the 64 returnees at the request of police, the Korea National Police Agency said in a statement. Police said the people they are seeking to arrest are accused of online scams such as romance scams, bogus investment offers or voice phishing apparently targeting fellow South Koreans back home. The courts are expected to decide in the coming days whether to authorize their arrest.
The police department said five people were released, but declined to disclose the reasons for their release, saying the investigation was still ongoing.
South Korean police said four of the 64 returnees told investigators they were beaten while held against their will at fraud centers in Cambodia.
South Korea is facing public calls to take stronger action to protect its citizens from being forced into overseas online scam centers after one of its citizens was found dead in Cambodia in August. He was reportedly persuaded by a friend to travel to Cambodia to provide his bank account for use by the fraudulent organization. Cambodian authorities said the 22-year-old university student was tortured.
The UN and other international agencies estimate that at least 100,000 people have been trafficked into scams in Cambodia, a similar number in Myanmar and tens of thousands more in other countries.
Officials in Seoul estimate that about 1,000 South Koreans are being held at scam centers in Cambodia, and last week South Korean authorities imposed a travel ban on parts of Cambodia and sent a government delegation to Cambodia to discuss joint steps.
Internet scam centers were previously concentrated in Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia and Myanmar, with the majority of trafficking victims and other workers coming from Asia. But a June Interpol report said victims had been trafficked into Southeast Asia over the past three years from as far afield as South America, Western Europe and East Africa, and that new centers were reported in the Middle East, West Africa and Central America.
