YEONGJONGDO (South Korea), Oct 18 (Bernama-Yonhap) -- A total of 64 South Koreans who had been detained in Cambodia over alleged online scams arrived home early on Saturday on a chartered flight and most of them would face criminal probes as suspects, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing police officials.
The large-scale repatriation came after the torture death of a South Korean college student who was lured to work by a criminal ring in Cambodia that triggered public outrage in South Korea.
The Korean Air plane carrying them arrived at Incheon International Airport at 8:35 am, about five hours after leaving Techo International Airport near Phnom Penh.
Their arrival came days after a South Korean government response team was dispatched to Cambodia to assist the Korean nationals implicated in online scams run by local crime organisations.
The South Korean nationals were reportedly placed under arrest once they boarded the plane and were set to be taken to police stations nationwide for investigations about their alleged involvement in criminal activity.
Under the law, detention warrants can be carried out inside national flag carriers as they are considered part of South Korean territory.
"Through this visit, we reaffirmed the Cambodian government's willingness to cooperate and reached an agreement to bolster bilateral cooperation by institutionalising a joint response task force (for such crimes)," said Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Ji-na, who led the joint government response team that had been dispatched to Cambodia to address the online scam issue.
"The government will work to establish an effective system for eradicating online scam crimes in Cambodia targeting South Koreans, and actively utilise the system," she added.
Park Sung-joo, head of the National Office of Investigation and a member of the response team, told reporters that Cambodian authorities agreed to "swiftly" notify Seoul of any additional arrests of Korean nationals in its crackdown on online scam rings.
The two countries will also exchange evidence related to the scams, such as mobile phones, to help the initial investigation into the cases, he noted.
In August, a South Korean university student was found to have been tortured and killed in Cambodia, a month after he was lured to the country by a job scam.
The case put a spotlight on the growing number of nationals lured to Cambodia with high-paying job offers and then forced to work in online scams targeting South Koreans, often under confinement and violence from crime rings.
The returnees are accused of involvement in online scams at criminal complexes in Cambodia, with 59 of them being detained after a crackdown by Cambodian authorities, while the rest were rescued after reporting their confinement.
Most of them face criminal charges in South Korea, with some under Interpol Red Notices.
They had all been detained by Cambodian immigration authorities, and there were five more people than the 59 reported by the Cambodian police.
It marked the largest operation by South Korean authorities to bring back South Korean criminals from a single foreign country, and the third repatriation operation of its kind.
Some 190 police officers also boarded the plane to escort the returnees, considering the criminal charges most of them face.
At Incheon International Airport, 23 vehicles were on standby to take the suspects to police stations.
-- BERNAMA-YONHAP
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