CAMBODIA HANDS OVER THAIS
Cambodia said on Saturday that it deported 119 Thais across the two countries’ shared border.
Cambodia’s immigration department said in a post on its Facebook page that the Thais – 61 men and 58 women – had “snuck in to work and stayed illegally” in the kingdom.
They were among 230 foreigners detained during raids on alleged cyber scam centres in the border city of Poipet on Feb 22 and 23, it said.
The Thais were deported via the Poipet border checkpoint on Saturday, it added.
Saturday’s handover comes a day after Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra visited Sa Kaeo, the Thai town neighbouring Poipet, to “eliminate call centre gangs”, she said in a post on social media platform X.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai confirmed in a post on X that the 119 Thais had been returned from Cambodia.
Both Thai and Cambodian authorities said the workers had been paid to commit fraud online and worked voluntarily.
A frontier town known for its casinos, Poipet has become a hub for cyberscam centres and online gambling operations.
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