PHNOM PENH: Cambodian authorities have arrested nearly 400 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals this month on suspicion of operating a telecoms scam to defraud victims in China, police said on Thursday.
The arrests are part of a regional crackdown as China battles telephone and Internet scams that have cost billions of dollars in financial losses.
Scams have targeted everyone from the elderly, the students and the unemployed to businessmen involved in legal problems. Scammers based overseas often pose as some kind of government official.
Police in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on Wednesday arrested 225 Chinese nationals, including 25 women, suspected of an extortion scheme using Internet voice call technology, said Thou Saroeun, deputy director of the anti-terrorism police department.
“We are processing the case and we don’t know yet when this will move to deportation,” Thou Saroeun told Reuters, without elaborating.
On Aug. 2, police arrested 151 Chinese and three Taiwanese nationals in the provinces of Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey, Uk Heisela, the investigations chief of the immigration department, told Reuters.
Authorities in Beijing accuse Taiwan of harboring criminal gangs behind many of the scams that have targeted victims on the mainland.
Cambodia is one of China’s closest allies in Southeast Asia and does not recognize the government of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a wayward province.
In recent years, it has deported more than 600 Chinese and Taiwanese to China after arresting them on suspicion of telecoms scams.
Since 2011, Taiwan and mainland China have cooperated in investigating telecoms fraud in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and elsewhere. Thousands of suspects, many from Taiwan, have been arrested since.
Last month, police in Indonesia said they had detained more than 150 Chinese nationals accused of a scam that had brought them an estimated $450 million by tricking victims into paying to make legal cases go away.
Some of the suspects arrested in Cambodia will be sent to China this week, Uk Heisela said.
“I don’t know when exactly, that depends on when China sends a plane,” he added.
Last month, Cambodia deported 105 Chinese and Taiwanese suspects to China, prompting a protest from the self-ruled island to Phnom Penh. Authorities in Taiwan have accused Cambodia of acting at China’s behest.
China has defended the deportations of people from Taiwan to China from places like Cambodia by saying the victims were all in China and so the criminals should face justice in China.
Cambodia arrests nearly 400 from China and Taiwan over telecoms fraud
Cambodia arrests nearly 400 from China and Taiwan over telecoms fraud
Drone strikes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region kill one, injure another
- The senior Tigrayan official said the drone strikes hit two Isuzu trucks near Enticho and Gendebta
- The Ethiopian National Defense Force launched the strikes but did not provide evidence
ADDIS ABABA: One person was killed and another injured in drone strikes in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region on Saturday, a senior Tigrayan official and a humanitarian worker said, in another sign of renewed conflict between regional and national forces.
Ethiopia’s national army fought fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front for two years until late 2022, in a war researchers say killed hundreds of thousands through direct violence, the collapse of health care and famine.
Fighting broke out between regional and national forces in the disputed territory of western Tigray earlier this week, according to diplomatic and government sources.
The senior Tigrayan official said the drone strikes hit two Isuzu trucks near Enticho and Gendebta, two places in Tigray about 20 kilometers apart. A humanitarian worker confirmed the strikes had happened. Both asked not to be named.
The Tigrayan official said the Ethiopian National Defense Force launched the strikes but did not provide evidence.
A spokesperson for the ENDF did not respond to a request for comment.
It was not immediately clear what the trucks were carrying.
TPLF-affiliated news outlet Dimtsi Weyane posted pictures on Facebook which it said showed the trucks damaged in the strikes. It said the trucks were transporting food and cooking items.
Pro-government activists posting on social media said the trucks were carrying weapons.
Earlier this week national carrier Ethiopian Airlines canceled flights to Tigray, where residents rushed to try to withdraw cash from banks.
The Tigray war ended with a peace pact in November 2022, but disagreements have continued over a range of issues, including contested territories in western Tigray and the delayed disarmament of Tigray forces.
