Cambodian government’s glaring failures

Amnesty International’s report found that the Cambodian government has failed to adequately investigate widespread human rights abuses at scamming compounds despite being repeatedly made aware of them.

“The Cambodian authorities know what is going on inside scamming compounds, yet they allow it to continue. Our findings reveal a pattern of state failures that have allowed criminality to flourish and raises questions about the government’s motivations,” Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director Montse Ferrer said.

The government has claimed to be addressing the scamming crisis through its National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking (NCCT) and a number of ministerial task forces, which have overseen a series of police “rescues” of victims from compounds. However, more than two thirds of the scamming compounds identified in the report continued to operate even after police raids and “rescues”. At one compound in Botum Sakor, human trafficking has been widely reported by media and police have intervened multiple times to rescue victims, yet the site remains open.

Police failings stem from their collaboration or coordination with compound bosses. For example, in many of the “rescues”, instead of entering the compounds and investigating, police would simply meet a manager or security guard at the gate, where they would be handed the individual(s) who had called in for help. Business then continued as usual.

In other instances, several survivors said they were punished with beatings after their secretive efforts to contact police for help were somehow uncovered by bosses. One Vietnamese survivor told Amnesty International that police “work for the compound and will report requests for help back to the compound bosses”.

Those “rescued” from compounds were often subsequently detained in immigration detention centres in poor conditions for months at a time – the Cambodian authorities having failed to recognize them as victims of human trafficking and provide them with the support required under international law.

Meanwhile, the authorities have targeted others speaking out about scamming compounds. Several human rights defenders and journalists working on the issue have been arrested, while the news outlet Voice of Democracy was closed in 2023 in apparent retaliation for its reporting on the scamming crisis.

Amnesty International sent its findings to the NCCT, which responded by sharing vague data on interventions at compounds, none of which clarified whether the state has identified, investigated or prosecuted individuals for human rights abuses other than deprivation of liberty. It also did not respond to Amnesty International’s list of scamming compounds or suspicious locations.