Rights Groups Links Cambodian Security Companies to Scam Compounds

From the outset, it must be said that Cambodia has delivered on promises to liquidate large-scale online scamming compounds, a key plank in the truce that ended last year’s border conflict with Thailand and a much-desired result ahead of its hosting the Francophonie Summit of French-speaking nations in mid-November. Mopping up the smaller operations continues, with regular government updates including the arrests and deportation of foreign scammers and alleged organized crime figures, who during the COVID-19 years turned industrialized online fraud into a multibillion-dollar racket. And the current broader attitude is a refreshing sea-change from the first three years of the scourge, when the public face of government was absolute denial of the allegations made by journalists and NGOs while tycoons and officials allegedly greased the wheels of the crime syndicates. Therein lies the problem. While the arrests and deportations of foreign tycoons like Chen Zhi and his cohorts within the criminal world made international headlines, their Cambodian counterparts remained hidden from view despite international sanctions, arrest warrants in Thailand, and Interpol Red Notices. It’s a point that’s been driven home by the latest Amnesty International report, which ties five security firms to Cambodia’s scam compounds and the serious human rights abuses that were committed there. For the Cambodian government, it’s a matter of credibility. Amnesty interviewed more than 150 survivors from 86 compounds and found guards were there not just to protect the premises but also played key roles in confining trafficked people, preventing escape, and enforcing forced labor. It also found that some directly participated in torture and other forms of ill-treatment. More than 25,000 videos and photos from guards’ social media accounts, satellite imagery, and corporate records were used, tying the companies to politically connected businessmen and linking members of the Cambodian military and police in at least 22 scam compounds. This, it says, raises concerns about official complicity and the failure of authorities to effectively dismantle the industry despite repeated crackdowns – and it called for an immediate investigation into the security companies and state officials linked to the compounds. Amnesty named the five Cambodian registered companies as Leap Somnang Security, Security Response, ZD Security, Dara Security Service, and Best (Cambodia) Security Service. At least three high-ranking military and police officers – Brig. Gen. Tek Bunthoeun, Col. Ban Sophat and Deputy Police Chief Lay Channy – had links to scamming compounds that indicated official involvement with the industry, Amnesty said in the 162-page report. “At the heart of these connections are security companies whose guards controlled compound exits, hunted down people who escaped, and enforced compliance through fear and violence,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “Without them, this system of mass exploitation could not have functioned,” she said. “For years, survivors of these nightmarish compounds described encountering members of the Cambodian military or police inside. These accounts could not be independently verified – until now.” The Amnesty report also follows a recent Al Jazeera documentary in which undercover journalists interviewed organized crime figures and met with senior government officials who also allegedly protected organized crime figures. In short, the list of Cambodian companies, officials and tycoons who allegedly enabled the wholesale trafficking of humans and the crimes that were committed is long, public, and growing, with the latest Amnesty report adding another thick layer of evidence. It’s a list that sits online, in every embassy that had a victim to extract or a citizen back home who was robbed, and in every major bank on the planet where international money transfers to and from Cambodia are judged on risk. And it will serve as background for any foreign investor who ever considers spending a dollar in Cambodia where the economy is in dire straits and tourists have simply stopped coming. Restoring Cambodia’s reputation and getting them back won’t be easy, but addressing global concerns like those raised in the Amnesty report would at least be a next step.