The government of Taiwan is scrambling to assist hundreds of its nationals lured into human trafficking and abusive jobs scams in Cambodia, with many victims saying they were taken to work in Chinese-owned casinos in Sihanoukville, a former playground for well-heeled Chinese and now a growing hotbed of criminal activity.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that the government is working to bring home hundreds of Taiwanese allegedly being held hostage by human traffickers in Cambodia, after China tried to claim them as its nationals.
Officials say they have so far tracked down around 370 victims stuck in the country after being lured there on promises of high-paying tech jobs, but efforts to bring them home are being hampered by a lack of formal diplomatic ties with Cambodia, a close ally of Beijing which doesn’t recognize Taiwan’s sovereign status.
Sunday’s announcement came after the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh offered assistance to Taiwanese trying to leave an abusive situation.
Taiwan has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, but Beijing insists the island, which was a Japanese dependency until the end of World War II, is part of its territory and has threatened to annex it by force.
According to the Global Anti Scam Organization (GASO), which tracks scams and trafficking schemes, as well as organizing rescue operations, estimates that online scams in…
