Over the weekend, Cambodia deported 64 South Korean citizens detained on suspicion of being involved in pork surgery scams a term referring to the method of building trust with victims long before taking property.
On October 20, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun announced that 10 more people had been arrested and 2 had been rescued. These people have been detained since October 17 and will be repatriated this week.
Mr. Cho said that the Seoul government continues to search for 80 other unknown South Korean citizens in Cambodia, related to online scams.
According to the South Korean Foreign Ministry, about 550 Koreans have been reported missing or illegally detained after entering Cambodia since last year.
Seoul estimates that there are about 1,000 Koreans among 200,000 people working at fraud centers in Cambodia, many of whom have been threatened and forced to commit pork- slaughtering or impersonating their loved ones to appropriate money.
Those who were deported last weekend were tied up as soon as they boarded a flight back home. South Korea's National Police Agency said on October 20 that it was seeking arrest warrants for 59 of them.
According to Park Sung-joo, head of the National Investigation Agency, these people were accused of being involved in phone scams, hoaxes and "no-show" scams.
The group includes volunteers and conscripts, said National Security Advisor Wi Sung-lac.
A large-scale deportation follows a wave of outrage in South Korea over the torture and murder of a university student in Cambodia earlier this year, allegedly carried out by a criminal gang.
Last week, South Korean diplomatic officials met with the Cambodian Prime Minister and local police to discuss fake jobs and fraud centers.
