More Than 12,000 Calls for Help: Indonesians Caught in Cambodia’s Scam Compounds

Since mid-January 2026, more than 12,000 Indonesians have walked into the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh asking to be sent home after leaving online-scam operations in Cambodia. Many arrived without passports, which their employers had kept, and with visas that had long expired. It is the largest wave the embassy has ever handled: in all of 2025 it recorded 5,088 cases.

How people end up in the compounds

The pattern is well documented. Recruiters advertise jobs as e-commerce operators, customer-service staff or restaurant workers in Facebook and Telegram job groups, buy the plane tickets and send workers on tourist visas via Singapore, Malaysia or Thailand. On arrival, according to the national police, workers are taken to scam companies where they work 14 to 18 hours a day against targets, are not allowed to leave guarded buildings and are sometimes not paid at all (Republika).

Indonesia has no labour-placement agreement with Cambodia. Since March 2025 the government has formally banned its citizens from working in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand because of the trafficking risk, and it treats every Indonesian working there as undocumented (Antara). The ban has not stopped the flow.

What happened in 2026

On 16 January, Cambodia intensified a nationwide crackdown ordered by Prime Minister Hun Manet. Syndicates dissolved and simply let their workers go. By 19 January, 911 Indonesians had come to the embassy; within ten days the number passed 2,400 (CNBC Indonesia, CNA). Arrivals continued for months: 6,308 by late March, 8,002 by early May, when up to 180 people came in a single day and the embassy shelter was full, and 12,583 by August (Antara, CNBC Indonesia, Investortrust).

Cambodia also changed its law. An Anti-Cyber Scam Law passed on 7 April 2026 carries fines of up to US$500,000 and life imprisonment (Metro TV). Raids now reach areas that were rarely touched before, such as the border town of Poipet. On 4 October, police there detained 550 Indonesians in one operation, the largest single arrest of Indonesians on record (IDX Channel).

Not everyone made it home. In March, a 22-year-old woman from Siak, Riau, who had been promised a job in Malaysia but was taken to Cambodia, died in a Phnom Penh hospital; her family had to pay to bring her body home (Antara).

How the government has responded

• Repatriation. The embassy issues emergency travel documents to those without passports, negotiates waivers of overstay fines (US$10 a day) and runs a temporary shelter. By August, 8,124 people had returned. Many pay for their own tickets.
• Diplomacy. The ambassador met Cambodia's anti-scam commission in January to speed up deportations. In late July, Deputy Foreign Minister Arif Havas Oegroseno visited Phnom Penh, and in August the government announced an "Indonesia Desk" at Cambodian police headquarters, involving the police, the Attorney General's Office, the financial regulator OJK and the financial intelligence unit PPATK (The Star, Investortrust).
• Screening. The embassy assesses returnees for signs of trafficking and says they are examined again on arrival in Jakarta. Police brought back 249 people from Cambodia and Myanmar in January as suspected trafficking victims (Republika).

Victims or perpetrators?

The wave has split officials. In February the embassy said none of 3,595 Indonesians it had assessed showed signs of being trafficking victims (InfoPublik). OJK chairman Mahendra Siregar said those returning were part of scams targeting Indonesians and should not be welcomed "as heroes" (detikFinance). Lawmakers warned against lumping everyone together: a member of House Commission XIII said a careless approach "risks violating human rights", while insisting that recruiters and coordinators must not escape (CNA). Migrant CARE argues the 2007 anti-trafficking law is outdated because it does not cover digital crime (Suara Surabaya).

What is still unresolved

As of October 2026, hundreds of Indonesians remain in Cambodian detention and new arrests continue. From 1 July, Cambodia stopped waiving overstay fines for Indonesians, which the foreign ministry calls homework still to negotiate (Investortrust). The embassy says some Indonesians are still arriving in Cambodia to join scam operations. It remains unclear how many recruiters at home have been charged, how returnees who were coerced are being supported, and whether the placement ban can work when jobs are sold on social media every day.