TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Indonesian Embassy of Phnom Penh in Cambodia have repatriated 241 victims of trafficking by online scammers. Government authorities have been repatriating the citizens since July.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry's director of the protection of Indonesian citizens (PWNI), Judha Nugraha, said that the 241 Indonesian nationals have been transferred to the Social Affairs Ministry to be rehabilitated and reintegrated with their families.

According to Judha, the Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) also continues to investigate similar cases.

Judha said that there is a sharp increase in the trafficking of Indonesians by online scammers in Cambodia. In 2021, the Embassy in Phnom Penh repatriated 119 Indonesians who fell for the scam. This year so far, the number of victims has soared to 446, including the 241 people who had been rescued and repatriated.

"Similar cases are happening not only in Cambodia. Indonesian Embassies in Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Philippines are also dealing with this," Judha said in a press conference, Thursday, August 25.

On August 12, the Foreign Affairs Ministry worked together with other state institutions to prevent the departure of 214 Indonesians to Cambodia. They were about to depart from Medan through unofficial procedures.

"It showed that non-procedural recruitment and departure were still happening," Judha said.

Both Indonesian and Cambodian authorities have sought to deal with online scam trafficking cases, using both technical procedures as well as high-level diplomacy. One of them was the meeting between the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister and Cambodia's chief of police.

DANIEL AHMAD

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