The Cambodian government will shut down all domestic crime compounds and scam workplaces by the end of next month.
According to the Associated Press on the 12th (local time), Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, head of Cambodia's anti-online fraud commission, said, "Since July last year, we have focused crackdowns on about 250 scam workplaces and forced about 200 of them to close."
Senior Minister Sinarith said, "To prevent scam workplaces from reemerging, we will continue police crackdowns after next month as well." The goal is to wash away the stigma of "Cambodia = den of crime" through this operation.
The Cambodian government recently indicted 697 people suspected of being ringleaders or accomplices of scam rings. About 10,000 people from 23 countries who engaged in fraud in the organizations have been repatriated to their home countries. The remaining number awaiting processing is said to be under 1,000.
According to local outlets including the Khmer Times, local police raided three dwellings in Phnom Penh on the 2nd and 3rd and arrested 10 South Koreans on charges including fraud using illegal gambling websites. The day before, they stormed a rental low-rise apartment in Kampot city, Kampot province in southern Cambodia and apprehended three South Koreans on suspicion of online fraud.
On the 10th, they also raided a scam workplace inside a Chinese-owned building in Phnom Penh and arrested 65 people, including 35 Chinese men and women.
However, some analysis suggested the Cambodian government's crackdown could amount to a "show." Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center and an expert on transnational crime, said in an interview with the AP, "Past crackdowns by the Cambodian government left the (scam rings') financing and protection networks intact, allowing the organizations to rebuild quickly," adding, "The key question is whether this operation targets not only the buildings where scams occur, but the very system that enables the scam industry."
He added, "So far there are few signs that this crackdown is reaching the core criminals within Cambodia's ruling elite," and "Given that independent media and civil society activity continue to be restricted on the ground, it is difficult to verify the government's claims."
Meanwhile, last year the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a U.S. think tank, estimated that more than $12.5 billion a year—about half of Cambodia's gross domestic product (GDP)—comes from Cambodia's scam industry (about 18.5 trillion won).