Cambodia has deported 34 Vietnamese nationals after authorities found they were living and working illegally in online scam operations inside the country.
The General Department of Immigration said in a statement today that the deportations took place through the Bavet International Border Checkpoint in Svay Rieng province. The individuals were accused of overstaying their visas and participating in cyber fraud schemes.
According to the same source, Cambodian authorities have carried out 48 major crackdowns on online scam networks in the first nine months of 2025. Nearly 2,910 suspects were detained, 168 cases were sent to court, and 722 foreign nationals were deported.
Between October 27 and 29 alone, Cambodia expelled about 150 people accused of involvement in illegal online operations. The latest deportations come as Cambodia faces growing criticism for being a regional hub for online scam networks that target victims around the world.
On October 29, Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia reported that the Singapore Police Force had identified 34 suspects connected to criminal activities based in Phnom Penh. Among them were 27 Singaporeans and seven Malaysians. The report said these networks caused losses of at least 41 million Singapore dollars about 31.7 million US dollars, across 438 reported cases.
Singaporean authorities are now working with Interpol to locate and arrest the suspects, even though the crimes were carried out outside Singapore.
In June 2025, Amnesty International released an investigation estimating that more than 120,000 people have been detained and forced to work under conditions resembling modern slavery in Cambodia, supporting transnational scam operations that exploit victims worldwide.
In response, on July 10, 2025, Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered a nationwide crackdown on online scam syndicates, saying Cambodia had become a target for criminal groups running large-scale cyberfraud operations across the country.
