Sixty South Koreans to return home Saturday after Cambodia detention

Cambodian police officials stand next to the closed gate at Poipet International border checkpoint between Cambodia-Thailand, at Poipet town in Banteay Meanchey province on June 24, 2025. [AFP]

Cambodia will repatriate 60 South Koreans detained for alleged involvement in cyberscam operations early Saturday, a Seoul official said, a day after Phnom Penh announced plans to deport them.

"Around midnight tonight local time in Cambodia, or early tomorrow morning Korea time, a chartered flight is expected to depart Phnom Penh for Incheon, with final discussions underway with Cambodian authorities," National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac told a press briefing.

"Since nearly all of them are classified as criminal suspects, they will be repatriated in accordance with appropriate legal procedures," he said.

South Korea sent a team to Cambodia on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.

Vice foreign minister Kim Jina, who led the team, met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet to discuss "joint efforts to combat transnational crimes, particularly online scams," according to a government statement posted.

Seoul previously said 63 South Koreans were detained by authorities in Cambodia, and vowed to bring them home.

Early on Friday, two South Koreans who were awaiting repatriation from Cambodia arrived at Incheon airport, an official from the Korean National Police Agency told AFP.

Another two also returned to South Korea from Cambodia earlier this week, the official added, without clarifying whether the four had been deported by authorities.

Wi has said the 63 South Koreans included both "voluntary and involuntary participants" in scam operations.

Seoul has said about 1,000 South Koreans were estimated to be among a total of around 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia.

Some are forced under threat of violence to execute "pig butchering" scams -- cryptocurrency investment schemes that build trust with victims over time before stealing their funds.

The multibillion-dollar illicit industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands of people perpetrating online scams, some willingly and others forced by the organised criminal groups running the fraud networks, experts say.