37 BD nationals rescued from cyber scam in Cambodian
Thirty-seven Bangladeshi nationals, who were rescued from cyber scam compounds in Cambodia, returned home early Friday after being trafficked and forced into online fraud operations under the guise of overseas employment.
The returnees arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 1:25am on a Thai Airways flight.
According to BRAC’s Migration Programme, each of the victims received emergency assistance upon arrival along with financial support to help them return to their respective homes.
One of the returnees, identified as Shahinur Rahman (pseudonym) from Dhaka, said they travelled to Cambodia through legal channels after being promised lucrative jobs, but were later allegedly sold by a Bangladeshi trafficking network to Chinese-run cyber scam compounds.
The victims said they were forced to carry out online fraud targeting citizens of the United States and other developed countries. They alleged that failure to meet performance targets often led to physical and psychological abuse. The Bangladeshis were rescued during recent operations conducted by Cambodian law enforcement agencies against several scam compounds.
This latest repatriation comes amid a series of similar incidents involving Bangladeshi nationals trapped in cyber scam centres across Southeast Asia.
Earlier, eight Bangladeshis were brought back from a scam centre in Myanmar on January 22 this year, while another 18 returned on September 19, 2025.
In those cases, victims were also lured abroad with promises of jobs and later forced into cyber fraud after their passports and mobile phones were confiscated.
BRAC officials described cyber scam operations as a growing and brutal form of human trafficking.
Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Programme and Youth Platform, said fraudsters advertise fake jobs such as computer operators, typists and call centre agents through social media platforms and messaging apps.
He urged jobseekers to carefully verify overseas employment offers, particularly in countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and called for stronger international cooperation to combat cyber scam networks and human trafficking.
