29 M'sians duped by fake job offers in Cambodia to be brought home from end-Sept

PUTRAJAYA: Twenty-nine Malaysians who were victims of fake job scams in Cambodia will be brought back to Malaysia in stages beginning end-September.

They are currently being detained by the immigration authorities in Cambodia.

Malaysian Ambassador to Cambodia Datuk Eldeen Mohd Hashin said the whole process would take up to October.

Speaking to Bernama on Tuesday, he explained that the latest group of 29 were part of 53 duped victims who were rescued, but had to be detained because they did not have valid travel documents. So far, 24 returned to Malaysia last Friday.

"These 29 either don't have passports; or even if they have passports, they are no longer valid or they could have sneaked into the country. They are being investigated and the process takes time because the victims are not only Malaysians as there are also victims from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and so on, so we will have to wait.

"We have received information that the investigations are almost done and we will try to bring them back as soon as possible but we cannot bring them altogether as the cases are being handled on an individual basis," he added.

Eldeen said 30 more Malaysians have been reported as victims of a job scam syndicate in Cambodia and efforts are underway to trace their whereabouts.

"In total, we received 148 reports at our embassy and we have rescued 118 persons so far."

On Friday, Eldeen accompanied Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah to bring back 24 victims, aged between 20 and 30 years.

Saifuddin was quoted as saying that he had visited seven Malaysians being held at the immigration depot in Phnom Penh when he was on a brief working visit, while another 22 were being held at Sihanoukville.

-- BERNAMA