Background
The Ministry of Interior carried out a coordinated administrative inspection programme of residences, business premises and public roads to detect foreigners without proper documentation and persons suspected of involvement in online-scamming operations. Ministry of Interior forces inspected 28,512 locations and checked 167,153 individuals across Cambodia in the first six months of 2026.
Roadside and vehicle inspections were used as part of the operation to identify persons moving between locations linked to online scams. Authorities reported 21,225 vehicle inspections involving 44,976 people; the operations resulted in the detention of 2,340 suspected foreign nationals from 20 nationalities and the referral of those suspects to the General Department of Immigration for deportation procedures.
Enforcement Actions
Law-enforcement teams seized evidentiary items and detained 2,340 suspects, including persons found without identity documents or with irregular papers; all detained suspects were transferred to the General Department of Immigration for processing. Administrative penalties were imposed on owners and managers of premises for violations of Sub‑decree No. 03, with total fines amounting to 7,763,200,000 riel.
The fine total reported by authorities comprised 26,400,000 riel levied under Article 19 and 7,736,800,000 riel levied under Article 20 of the referenced enforcement framework.
Operational Implications
The combined use of targeted location inspections and road checkpoints illustrates an operational approach that pairs place-based compliance checks with mobility monitoring to detect suspected online-fraud networks. Owners and managers of premises face direct administrative liability under Sub‑decree No. 03 when their locations are found to be associated with illegal online-scamming activities.
Source
Primary reporting and summary figures were provided by the General Department of Immigration and the Ministry of Interior via GDI social channels: https://www.facebook.com/GDIOfficial/; https://www.tiktok.com/@gdicambodia; https://t.me/GDIOfficial; and the official website www.immigration.gov.kh.
