Twenty recently rescued Cambodian migrant workers are in the process of being repatriated from Indonesia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Friday.
Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said Indonesian authorities had identified them as victims of human trafficking and some may have been working on fishing boats.
In a statement, the ministry said it had been working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Indonesian government and the Cambodian Embassy in Indonesia on several cases involving migrant workers.
The rescued included 18 migrants rescued in the Riau Islands, and another two men found at Balawan port in Sumatra’s Medan province, officials said.
IOM regional spokesman Joe Lowry said he was unsure of the migrants’ identities, but said that the group of 18 had been rescued from the Riau Islands in mid-August while the other two had been rescued in mid-September.
Another migrant was repatriated on September 27 from Bailey Island. In 2015, a total of 427 Cambodian fisherman enslaved on Indonesian fishing boats were rescued.
