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View all search resultsCambodia scam crackdown sheds light on Indonesia’s employment gaps
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Liberation: People gather in front of the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh on Jan. 19, 2026,. More than 400 Indonesians were freed by cyber scam networks in Cambodia this month, Jakarta said on the same day. (AFP/Stringer)
T
he surge in Indonesians seeking repatriation from Cambodia following a crackdown on online scam centers has drawn national scrutiny over its scale, with many pointing to structural weaknesses in employment and economic security that lure vulnerable Indonesians into such work.
As of Monday, a total of 2,277 Indonesian nationals were seeking assistance from the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh to return home, marking a spike in repatriation requests from Indonesians since Jan. 16.
The embassy said these Indonesians came in person from various regions following a large-scale clean-up by the Cambodian government against online scam operations in recent weeks, which has also forced other foreign nationals to flee the centers.
“There were 122 Indonesians reporting directly [to the office] on Saturday alone, which was a decrease compared with the previous three days, which reached over 200 per day,” the embassy said in its press release on Sunday.
Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia Santo Darmosumarto said last week that the embassy “is coordinating intensively with Cambodian authorities” to expedite the return of these nationals.
Indonesia is among several Asian countries whose citizens have ended up in Cambodia’s scamming compounds, falling victim to online fraud networks’ false promises of high-paying jobs.
A report from human rights group Amnesty International last year recorded at least 53 compounds across Cambodia that violated thousands of workers’ human rights through “forced labor [...] torture and other ill-treatment”.
