Sam Rainsy reveals over 120,000 trafficking victims enslaved in Cambodia
Exiled Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy has accused the Hun family-backed regime of enabling large-scale human trafficking operations across Cambodia, with over 120,000 individuals allegedly held in brutal forced labour conditions.
Posting on his official Facebook page alongside images, Rainsy claimed that numerous secured buildings nationwide function as modern-day slave compounds, where detainees—both Cambodian and foreign—are forced to work under inhumane conditions.
His statement coincided with the release of a damning 250-page report by Amnesty International, the result of an 18-month investigation drawing on testimonies from 58 survivors, including nine children.
The report identifies at least 53 heavily guarded sites that resemble prisons, where trafficking victims—many deceived or abducted—have been tortured with electric shocks and beatings, and forced to carry out online scams generating profits for powerful Chinese criminal syndicates.
The victims include nationals from Thailand, Vietnam, India, the Philippines and beyond. Many were trafficked into Cambodia and unlawfully detained. In response, the Thai and Vietnamese governments have launched coordinated rescue operations to secure the release of their citizens.
These transnational criminal groups, according to Rainsy and corroborated by rights organisations, operate casinos, launder money through real estate, and front shell companies across Cambodia—especially in border regions.
They are reportedly protected by figures connected to the Hun family and operate with near-total impunity. Several Chinese mafia figures involved in these activities hold Cambodian passports and are often apprehended only when travelling abroad to countries such as Singapore or Thailand.
The border-based syndicates, particularly near Thailand, are believed to generate billions of dollars annually, with a portion allegedly funnelled to the Hun family and its allies.
This network’s deep entrenchment in Cambodian power structures, Rainsy suggested, is why Thailand’s recent crackdown on border mafia groups has sparked fierce backlash from former prime minister Hun Sen, contributing to escalating tensions along the Thai-Cambodian frontier.
