Mark Taylor

Two weeks ago the Cambodian government feted international guests at a lavish event celebrating its self-proclaimed victory over cyber-scam crimes that had appeared at a significant scale in the Kingdom starting in 2021.  Guests unanimously agreed that Cambodia had made concerted and successful efforts to curb the scam industry.  On Thursday, however, the U.S. Department of State released the 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, a public assessment containing a grading of Cambodia’s efforts to address human trafficking – particularly the human trafficking fueling that same cyber-scam industry -- as one of the world’s worst, underscoring an identified “policy or pattern” of the government’s enabling or abetting human trafficking.