By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea issued a “code-black” travel ban for parts of Cambodia on Wednesday and dispatched a team of high-level officials to help nationals lured into working in scam compounds and secure the release of those held against their will.
Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jina is leading the team to Cambodia to look for a resolution to the involvement of South Koreans in the “complex” scam industry, South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said.
South Korea’s intelligence agency is also involved, a presidential spokesperson said separately.
The foreign ministry issued a new travel ban for parts of Cambodia, including Poipet and Kampot, and an advisory to leave regions, including Sihanoukville.
It cited recent increases in cases of detention and “fraudulent employment”. A “code-black” ban is the most serious travel ban with orders for citizens to leave.
More than 1,000 South Koreans are believed to be among about 200,000 people of various nationalities involved in the scam compounds in Cambodia, Wi told reporters.
The United Nations estimates the scam centres, which have emerged in Southeast Asia since the COVID-19 pandemic, generate billions of dollars in revenue for criminal networks every year, targeting victims around the world through phone and online scams.
The South Korean action follows the death of a South Korean student who was lured into working in a scam centre in Cambodia with the promise of hefty wage. He allegedly died after being tortured by a criminal gang.
Last week, South Korea summoned the Cambodian ambassador over the death as well as the detention of its nationals by cybercrime gangs, urging Phnom Penh to take action.
In June, Amnesty International accused the Cambodian government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by crime groups and a “pattern of state failures” that enabled a billion-dollar industry to flourish.
The Cambodian government rejected allegations of inaction and said the human rights group’s report was “exaggerated”.
South Korean police and its foreign ministry have worked on more than 300 reports filed this year by relatives of nationals believed to be missing in Cambodia, and about 80% of these cases have been resolved, Wi said.
The government is working on 72 cases and plans to bring back about 60 people who had been rounded up since July by Cambodian authorities, he said, adding many others were believed to be missing or held against their will.
Wi said the government faced constraints given that Cambodia had the right to respond to crimes in the country and said the best course of action for South Korea was to help and cooperate.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies and Kate Mayberry)
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