The government has so far brought back 246 Taiwanese who had been lured to Cambodia by fraud rings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
However, there are still 393 Taiwanese stranded in the Southeast Asian country, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs deputy head Fan Hou-lu (范厚祿) told a news conference, citing last week’s figures.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau in a statement on Saturday said that 60 of the 393 Taiwanese had been freed from their jobs and were awaiting assistance to return home.
Photo: Reuters
The numbers were provided by Taiwan’s representative office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, which handles Cambodian affairs in the absence of a representative office there, Fan said yesterday.
The office has over the past few week received fewer requests for help from Taiwanese in Cambodia, he said.
From Aug. 26 to Sept. 8, the office received 133 such requests, but from Sept. 8 to Friday, the number dropped to 51, Fan said.
The government on Aug. 8 appointed a task force to help Taiwanese falling prey to job scams in Cambodia and to bring home those stranded there.
The task force has also been working to raise public awareness of the risks related to work and travel in Cambodia, the Executive Yuan has said.
As part of those efforts, airport police have been warning travelers to Cambodia about the reported job scams there.
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