RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - The National Police’s Directorate of Women and Child Protection and Human Trafficking Eradication (PPA-PPO) has assessed 249 Indonesian citizens repatriated from Cambodia to determine whether they were victims of human trafficking.

Director of PPA-PPO, Brigadier General Nurul Azizah, explained that the evaluation was conducted in collaboration with the Indonesian Migrant Worker Protection Agency (BP2MI) and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

“The assessment was carried out jointly by the National Police, BP2MI, and the Ministry of Social Affairs,” she said in Jakarta on Monday.

The 249 citizens were returned in two groups: the first on January 22, 2026, and the second on January 30–31, 2026, from Myawaddy, Myanmar, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

According to Nurul, most had been recruited by fellow Indonesians already living and working in Cambodia. 

“They were offered jobs through online job groups or advertisements on Facebook and Telegram,” she noted, adding that positions included e-commerce operators, online gambling staff, restaurant workers, and customer service representatives.

She explained that recruits were provided tickets directly by their recruiters and traveled on tourist visas, often via routes such as Medan-Batam-Singapore-Cambodia, Jakarta-Singapore-Cambodia, or Batam-Malaysia-Cambodia.

Once in Cambodia, they were taken to online scam companies. “They worked 14–18 hours a day with targets set by the company,” Nurul said. Although accommodation and meals were provided, workers were confined to guarded premises and not allowed to leave.

Many had worked between two months and 1.5 years, earning salaries of IDR 6–8 million. However, some reported not receiving wages, while others were paid in cash directly by the companies.

Regarding the next steps, Nurul said that only three of the repatriated citizens plan to report the incident to the police. “Only three of them intend to file a report with the North Sumatra Regional Police, in accordance with their place of residence,” she stated. ***