PHNOM PENH, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has so far deported more than 30,000 suspected foreign scammers, as over 210,000 others have voluntarily left the kingdom after operations against online scams have intensified since June last year, Interior Minister Sar Sokha said on Wednesday.
"In our anti-online scam campaign, until this hour, more than 210,000 foreigners have departed Cambodia voluntarily and more than 30,000 foreign suspects have been arrested and deported back to their birth countries," he said at an Anti-Human Trafficking event in Phnom Penh.
"I would like to call on the authorities at all levels not to loosen our crackdowns in order to achieve the government's target of eliminating all online scam centers in Cambodia," said Sokha, who is also a deputy prime minister.
The Southeast Asian country has launched an unprecedented nationwide crackdown on cyber scam networks in order to maintain social security, safety, and public order, and to restore the kingdom's image on the international stage.
Ministry of Interior Spokesperson Touch Sokhak said recently that the government has set a deadline to completely eradicate online scam networks in Cambodia by April 2026. ■