Cambodia’s continued attempts to minimize the extent of cyber-slavery on its territory reflect official complicity, as well as the need to embark on a learning curve that many other countries have yet to master, experts say. A huge volume of media reports concur that trafficking victims are recruited to work in cyber-slavery from China, and … Read more
Over the past several weeks, the U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) has published a three-part investigative report into the clandestine dealings of the Prince Group, a multi-billion-dollar Cambodian conglomerate. Over the past decade, Prince and its enigmatic chief executive, the Chinese national Chen Zhi, have risen from obscurity to the top echelon of Cambodia’s … Read more
Thai police rush into Kork Seim’s home in Rayong, Thailand just after 5p.m. on Friday afternoon. She is quickly rounded up along with her husband and their children, aged 2 and 4, and shuffled into a waiting car with no explanation. Despite their status as UNHCR people of concern, Seim and her family are sent … Read more
Cambodia’s government has embarked on a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at luring back the Western goodwill and investors who were pushed out by an unprecedented influx of Chinese money and a crackdown on political opposition and the independent press that began in 2016. The United States, Australia, Japan, France, and Germany are among the list … Read more
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has sacked a prominent provincial city mayor while reports say rank and file members of the police and military, up to the rank of brigadier general, have been fired or demoted amid allegations of corrupt practices. The shake-up had been forecast by diplomats in recent weeks with Cambodian authorities grappling with … Read more
One of this columnist’s earliest experiences of Cambodia, perhaps a week or so after he arrived, was of a mob. Hitching a ride with a motodop, we pulled up near what at first seemed a standard traffic accident, the kind that becomes routine when you live in Phnom Penh for some time. From a safe … Read more
Each year, the U.S. State Department publishes its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report which ranks every country on a descending 1-3 scale in terms of demonstrated commitment to combatting human trafficking. The review period for the 2024 report is now well underway. Despite the continued flourishing of a state-facilitated industry of human trafficking-enabled scamming and … Read more
Advertisement Cambodia’s government says it will not permit the screening of a hit Chinese action film based on the region’s cyber-scam industry, claiming that it would damage the country’s international reputation. According to a report published yesterday by the local news site Cambodianess, Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has asked the Chinese Embassy … Read more
Advertisement If a job offer in Cambodia or Myanmar sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Young, educated people from around the world are being tricked into relocating to Southeast Asia, where they find themselves locked in compounds and working round the clock as online scammers. Once on the treadmill, the only … Read more