Seven Cambodians arrested while working on a boat fishing illegally in Bruneian waters will be repatriated today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday.
Bruneian authorities stopped a Thai-flagged fishing vessel and arrested the seven Cambodians on board, who were found without documentation, according to the statement.
“The Cambodian Embassy in Brunei had to intervene to secure the release of the seven Cambodian people who had been guilty of entering Brunei illegally recently,” it said.
“The seven people were arrested while they were working on Thai boats and Brunei’s authorities caught the boat illegally fishing in Brunei waters.”
The statement says the Cambodian Red Cross “helped to cover the transportation costs to return them to their homeland.”
In April, six Taiwanese nationals linked to the now defunct Giant Ocean recruitment agency were sentenced to 10 years in prison after the court judged that they had sold Cambodian men into slave-like conditions on fishing boats.
The fishing boats were supposed to work around Thailand but some ended up off the coast of South Africa.
