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Vietnamese being trafficked by Chinese nationals to work in Cambodian casinos, officials warn
- After being offered jobs online, Vietnamese have been forced to work 16-hour shifts and were physically assaulted when they tried to escape
- Sihanoukville, which has received massive Chinese investment in recent years, has emerged as one of the primary destinations for labour trafficking
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Vietnamese citizens are being lured into migrating to Cambodia, sometimes illegally, with attractive but often fraudulent offers to work in casinos and online gaming establishments, Vietnamese officials have warned.
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The Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia last week highlighted the risks of trafficking, noting both the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the difficulty of controlling the porous border between the two countries.
In a Facebook post, the Vietnamese embassy urged its citizens to be vigilant about suspicious advertisements for jobs offering between US$800 and US$1,000 a month.
“According to [victims], we found out that the operation to entice and bring Vietnamese people to Cambodia is led by a number of Chinese people, with the participation of both Vietnamese and Cambodians,’’ the embassy said on its Facebook page.
“After the victims agree to the job, criminal groups will arrange for them to go to Cambodia … [where they] will be brought to hotels or casinos that are concentrated in Sihanoukville,” it added, noting that the targets were subsequently trained to find and entice potential customers for online gambling, which has been banned in Cambodia since 2019.
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The Chinese embassy in Cambodia had also flagged concerns about trafficking related to online gambling, releasing a statement last September warning that Chinese citizens were being smuggled into Cambodia from Vietnam and elsewhere to work in illegal sectors.
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