Eleven Taiwanese who were among hundreds trafficked to Cambodia to work for fraud rings have returned to Taiwan, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Monday.
The return of the Taiwanese — two on Sunday and nine on Monday — was achieved with the assistance of Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Sar Kheng, the bureau said.
The 11 people were among about 373 Taiwanese known to be trapped in the Southeast Asian country after being lured there by the promise of lucrative job offers that turned out to be scams run by fraud rings seeking workers, the government said.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
An estimated 144 Taiwanese were being held against their will, and their passports had been confiscated, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said on Aug. 18.
Since then, the government sent CIB mission-specific communications liaison officer Chan Li-tse (詹利澤) to Vietnam to work with a CIB officer stationed there to help bring home Taiwanese stuck in Cambodia.
Chan said the effort to bring home the 11 Taiwanese started when he contacted Kheng through Facebook, providing him with their names, passport numbers and locations.
The information had been obtained during an investigation into the possible involvement of the Bamboo Union — a crime syndicate in Taiwan — in the trafficking of Taiwanese to Cambodia, Chan said.
During the investigation, law enforcement officers discovered a ledger containing the personal data and location of the 11 Taiwanese, who were in various places in Cambodia, including Sihanoukville and Kandal, he said.
Some who have returned said that while they were aware of the prevalence of job scams, they thought the job offers were legitimate, as they had been interviewed by videoconference, Chan said.
Once in Cambodia, their passports were seized by members of the fraud rings, with one victim saying that anyone who broke the rules was beaten, Chan said.
Kheng, who is also chairman of Cambodia’s National Committee for Counter Trafficking, last month pledged to crack down on human trafficking in the country.
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