The information was just announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Sar Sokha in the context of Cambodia increasing efforts to eliminate its image as a hotspot for cybercrime in the region.
Mr. Sar Sokha - who is also Chairman of the National Commission for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCT) - said that besides the cases of official deportation, more than 210,000 other foreigners voluntarily left Cambodia in the same period.
This strong campaign took place under Prime Minister Hun Manet, who came to power in 2023 with a commitment to "clean up" online fraud that is spreading in Southeast Asia.
From mid-2025, functional forces will be strengthened to inspect and crack down on fraudulent organizations operating in closed complex areas.
The Cambodian Ministry of Interior is considering implementing a program to encourage people to provide information about suspicious fraud facilities. According to Mr. Sar Sokha, the police force is currently under great pressure with a ratio of 1 police officer in charge of about 3,100 people.
We cannot do this alone. We need people to become'eyes and ears' to support the elimination of these activities from the country," he said.
Cambodian authorities admit that online fraud is a global problem, but the rapid development of technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI), makes the country more vulnerable. Authorities warn that if awareness of responsible AI use is not raised, the number of victims of sophisticated fraud models may continue to increase.
Not only is it a transit point for foreign criminals, Cambodia also records citizens being lured abroad by promising easy jobs with high salaries, mainly in China. According to the Ministry of Interior, more than 100 Cambodians fall into human trafficking traps in this form each year.
Faced with that situation, the government has tightened exit controls at airports. Mr. Sar Sokha requested the General Department of Identification to carefully check women aged 18 to 35 if they do not have clear papers, have no authentic guarantor or are not financially stable.
If a person declares traveling but only carries less than 50 USD, they should not be allowed to leave the country," he emphasized, saying that this is a warning sign of the risk of human trafficking.
The Ministry of Home Affairs also said that recently it has increased the arrests of domestic "bait" and foreigners operating at the village and commune levels.
From June 2025, under the direct direction of Prime Minister Hun Manet, inter-sectoral working groups have raided about 2,500 locations, dismantling 200 large-scale online fraud lines.
Functional forces confiscated 10,444 computers and 36,476 smartphones during the investigation.
The Cambodian judiciary has also stepped up handling related cases, with more than 500 defendants prosecuted, including some influential figures and lines led by foreigners.
According to the Ministry of Justice, a number of notable cases have been brought to trial, including cases named "Chen Zhi" and "Oknha Ly Kuong", along with many other international fraud schemes.
A large-scale crackdown campaign is continuing to be implemented, in the context of Cambodia's efforts to control high-tech crime and tighten immigration management.
