Cambodian officials contradicted reports from the Thai government that 19 Thai nationals were rescued from a scam operation Saturday in Oddar Meanchey.
“According to the information that has been reported to me, there were only 11 people [rescued],” said Chea Piseth, head of Oddar Meanchey’s provincial administration. Seven people were taken from La Lin Hotel, he said, and he did not know where the other four people were rescued from. All 11 were Thai nationals, with nine coming through the border at O’Smach and two coming through Poipet. Immigration officials had sent the workers to the district police headquarters for questioning, he said.
Piseth told CamboJA News that the provincial hall administration had received a report of 11 victims rescued on Sunday and that provincial police are working on the case and “complying with the law.” He said the laborers had arrived in Cambodia around Friday without passports and asked for intervention from authorities on Saturday.
Piseth’s comments contradict statements from Thailand’s Suranaree Task Force that around 30 Cambodian officials rescued 19 Thai nationals on Saturday from at a casino near the O’Smach border pass, as reported by the Bangkok Post.
According to the article, around 50 laborers were working at the scam operation, but the Taiwanese compound operators left with Chinese, Indian, Lao and Vietnamese workers in advance of the raid. Thai officials received a phone call from one of the victims on March 14, kicking off the rescue. The rescued aborers said the majority of the Thai nationals entered Cambodia through Poipet. Workers who did not meet daily financial metrics at the scam operation were forced to “run up and down their building” or were shocked with electricity, the Thai outlet reported.
When a CamboJA reporter asked about the discrepancies in the two governments’ reports, Piseth said he did not have information regarding the case of 19 rescued victims. The Thai embassy in Cambodia did not respond to an email or answer multiple phone calls.
Piseth referred further questions to Deputy Provincial Governor Un Sopheak and the provincial information department. Un Sopheak declined to comment.
Phal Lim, head of Oddar Meanchey’s information department, said that border authorities had not asked his department to join meetings regarding this case and he therefore could not provide additional information. He added that O’Smach border officials had met with Thai authorities, but did not specify when.
The woman who picked up the phone at La Lin Hotel Tuesday said police rescued seven people from the hotel but declined to give additional information.
Oddar Meanchey Provincial Governor Pen Kosal told CamboJA News on Tuesday that “we have rescued 11 people,” but declined to give additional details.
Huot Sothy, Oddar Meanchey’s provincial police chief, said that Thai authorities contacted a licensed O’Smach casino on Saturday regarding a complaint, although he claimed not to know which casino. O’Smach has two casinos: O-Smach Resort, owned by tycoon Ly Yong Phat’s L.Y.P Group, and Royal Hill Resort, owned by tycoon Lim Heng. According to Sothy, Thai authorities met with the owner of the casino, and casino staff then contacted the Cambodian border police about the complaint.
“Thailand said 19 people were rescued, but I learned there were only seven people. I am not sure how they calculated that,” he said, adding that the seven Thai citizens “may have” been taken back to Thailand.
Sothy disputed the account that 30 Cambodian officials had raided a scam compound. When Thai authorities entered at the border on Saturday, Cambodian police and officials gathered to observe what was happening and “just sit and drink coffee near the border gate,” Sothy told CamboJA News, laughing while he spoke. There was “confusion,” as Cambodian officials were not notified by Thai authorities in advance, he said.
He claimed to not know where the victims were rescued from because Thai authorities had not provided Cambodian officials with the information.
“This did not happen and I do not know about it,” said Long Sakun, deputy provincial police chief in charge of immigration, referring to the reported rescue of 19 Thai nationals. “I was here [in the province] and it didn’t happen like that,” he said while laughing.
Sok Veasna, director general for the General Department of Immigration, said that he did not know about a rescue of 19 Thai citizens.
Ham Sokhuoy, deputy city police chief in charge of immigration, said he needed to be advised by the city police chief before commenting. Samrong city Police Chief Horm Phirun declined to comment.
Ouk Bun Uy, O’Smach commune police chief, said that he did not know about the reported 19 rescued victims, nor did he know about the people rescued from La Lin Hotel. During past investigations at the two local casinos, local authorities such as Bun Uy were not permitted to enter, he said.
This is not the first time Cambodian authorities have contradicted reports from authorities in other countries regarding scam compound rescues. In December, Thai authorities reported that nine Thai nationals set a fire inside PuLi Casino in Poipet in order to escape a violent scam operation after being lured into Cambodia with false promises of casino jobs. Cambodian authorities disputed this account, claiming that the Thai nationals were not human trafficking victims, had not experienced violence at the hands of their employers, and had set fire to a room in the building after getting into a brawl.
In August, the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh announced that 41 Indonesian citizens had been repatriated from online scam operations, but Cambodian police officials claimed these people were not victims, CamboJA News reported.
Foreign workers have previously reported being trafficked to operations in O’Smach in buildings owned by Ly Yong Phat. Workers reported being “confined and eventually rescued” from these compounds, according to a report from the New York Times in August. A Filipino man reported being lured to the area with false promises of a customer service job, and instead was held in a scam compound in a building local officials identified as belonging to Ly Yong Phat. There, he said, he was kicked, punched and beaten with a baseball bat and a metal pipe by six men when he tried to leave.
Local media reported in October that a Vietnamese man jumped from an apartment building within the O-Smach Resort compound and later died. In 2020, another local outlet reported that a Chinese woman had jumped to her death from the second floor of a hotel within the same compound. Local news reported in 2018 the arrests of two Chinese men and one Cambodian woman for stealing 143 mobile phones from an “online company” operating within O-Smach Resort.
Recent Raids in Sihanoukville: “Just a show for us to see”
The reported Oddar Meanchey rescue follows two massive raids carried out by the Cambodian government in Sihanoukville earlier this month.
“The goal of the crackdown operation is to eliminate all online scam locations in Sihanoukville,” Cambodia’s General Department of Immigration stated in a Facebook post.
The department reported finding 172 foreigners during a raid at the former Paradise Island Casino on March 9. The workers found included 109 Vietnamese nationals, 54 Thai nationals, eight Taiwanese nationals and one Chinese national, who were then sent to the immigration department for deportation. The Vietnamese nationals were deported on March 11, according to a local news report. Additionally, authorities identified four Taiwanese managers and one Chineses manager, who were sent to provincial court.
CamboJA News spoke with vendors and tuk tuk drivers working outside the former Paradise Island Casino on March 11. The locals reported being shocked hearing sirens blare as military and police vehicles surrounded the compound and officials arrived carrying rifles.
“Everyone had guns. Who wouldn’t be scared?” said a coffee seller who asked to remain anonymous to avoid future issues. “This was the first time in my life seeing something like this. It was like in the movies when they stepped out of their cars with guns. They threatened that if [the compound] did not open its doors, they would shoot at them.”
She added that the military officials warned onlookers not to take photos or video or they would get in trouble.
“Everyone had guns in their hands,” exclaimed another woman working at a food stand. “One of them [an official] asked whether I was scared or not and I told him this is my first time witnessing a scene like this.”
A PassApp driver who works in the area told CamboJA News that the scam compound at the former Paradise Island Casino has operated for six years and belongs to a powerful military official.
“Even though it belongs to a powerful individual, they raided it. But the raid is just a show for us to see. It’s what [the government] wants us to see.”
Another raid was carried out on March 10 at an unnamed location in Preah Sihanouk province where authorities found 279 Cambodian workers, according to the General Department of Immigration. One Myanmar worker and 27 Chinese workers were also found and sent to the immigration department for deportation.
Local residents told a CamboJA News reporter that the second raid occurred in Commune III in Village II in Sihanoukville. Motorcycle taxi and tuk tuk drivers outside a hotel in the commune, Huong Korn Resort Hotel, said that a large raid occurred at the location on March 10.
A few police and military police officers remained stationed inside the hotel on March 11, with police vehicles parked outside. A CamboJA News reporter spoke with four motorcycle taxi drivers and PassApp drivers working in the area.
One the day of the raid, many police cars and officers with guns arrived at the Huong Korn Resort Hotel, according to the drivers. Buses arrived after the raid and transported most of the Cambodian workers to their hometowns. One motorcycle taxi driver, who asked not to be named for fear of future problems with authorities, said that some people had left the compound before officials arrived.
The drivers said the scam operation had been running for nearly a year, and there were many other online scam operations still operating in the area. The workers from the hotel told the drivers they had not yet received their salaries. Many were between the ages of 15 and 20 and told the drivers they had failed their high school exams. They came from Kampong Speu, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chhnang and Kampot.
“Those living in the building rarely came outside. Only a few Cambodians came in and went out,” said one motorcycle taxi driver.
