Amnesty International has raised serious concerns following videos that appear to show mass releases and escape attempts from scamming compounds across Cambodia. Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director, warned that thousands of individuals, likely victims of human trafficking and torture, are now stranded without support and at risk of being re-trafficked. She called on the Cambodian government to provide immediate protection, ensure access to justice, and prevent the forced return of victims to countries where they could face persecution.
The recent developments highlight the alarming scale of Cambodia’s scamming industry and the government’s failure to hold perpetrators accountable. Amnesty International urged authorities to investigate all scamming compounds, prosecute those responsible—including landlords and companies facilitating abuses—and use willing victim testimonies to support legal action.
Amnesty International geolocated 15 videos and images, many from the research group CyberScamMonitor, documenting escape attempts and releases at least 10 scamming compounds in the last 36 hours. Seven of these sites were previously profiled in Amnesty’s June 2025 report. Footage shows people leaving multiple confirmed or suspected scamming compounds, with some victims reportedly being beaten by security guards at compound gates, including in Bavet (BA01).
Amnesty International has interviewed over 100 victims of Cambodia’s scamming industry, revealing patterns of trafficking from outside the country, forced labor, coercion to scam or recruit others, deprivation of liberty, and torture for non-compliance. The Cambodian government launched a nationwide crackdown on these compounds in July 2025, claiming to have freed more than 3,000 victims.
Despite these efforts, Amnesty International’s June 2025 report documented over 50 compounds across Cambodia as sites of widespread slavery, human trafficking, forced labor, and torture, often operating as prison-like facilities controlled by organized criminal groups. The report concluded that Cambodian authorities had largely failed to prevent or address these abuses, with evidence suggesting state complicity or deliberate inaction that allowed the industry to persist.
