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Nineteen Japanese men detained in Cambodia in January on suspicion of participating in phone and online scams were deported to their homeland on Tuesday, police said.
The group boarded a chartered flight organized by the Japanese government at Phnom Penh International Airport, Cambodian National Police spokesperson Gen. Chhay Kim Khouen said.
Immigration Police, part of the Interior Ministry, said in a statement that the men were deported because they violated immigration law by living and working in Cambodia illegally. They will not be allowed to reenter the country for three years, it said.
Tokyo police have obtained arrest warrants for the 19 Japanese on suspicion of running phone scams from Cambodia targeting people in Japan, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.
NHK said Cambodian authorities searched the men’s hotel rooms and “discovered a list of Japanese citizens believed to be targets in a fraud scheme.”
The 19 were taken into custody in the southern city of Sihanoukville on Jan. 24 and sent to the capital, Phnom Penh, where they were held after being investigated by the Interior Ministry.
