Twenty-five Thai women tricked to work for an online casino in Cambodia have been rescued by police in Phnom Penh.
Superintendent of Sa Kaeo provincial police Pol Col Jaturapat Singhasthit said Thai and Cambodian authorities joined forces to rescue the women after Thai immigration officers talked to the mother of one of the women to find their location in Phnom Penh.
The rescue operation was initiated after one of the women asked for help on a Facebook page. She said she had been tricked to find customers for online casinos after applying for a job on Facebook.
The official said most online casino businesses were run by Chinese citizens.
If found guilty, they would be prosecuted by the Cambodian authorities, he said.
Thai police believed the women must have been interned in the province before they were sent to Cambodia to work.
Police said they were finding out where the women crossed the border, where in Sa Kaeo they stayed, how they lived and what they did during a period of 10 days.
One woman said they had been waiting in Sa Kaeo from March 7-18 before crossing the border via natural channels to Cambodia.
The woman admitted she knew the job was illegal but she needed money to provide for her family.
The woman said the recruitment agency told her the job was in Sihanoukville in Cambodia and it would pay her 28,000 baht per month, plus special pay of 7,500 baht with free accommodation.
She had applied for the job and travelled to Sa Kaeo with seven friends.
The woman said she stayed in quarantine in Cambodia for seven days since March 21 and was taken to work on March 28.
She was told later the recruitment agency had sold all eight of them to an online casino operator who would pay them 24,000 baht per month. They had to work 12 hours each day for six days a week.
bkk
