At a detention facility in Phnom Penh, 64 South Korean citizens lined up, waiting to be deported back to their country. Many of them refuse to disclose their experiences in Cambodia or even resist returning home. This scene occurred at an embarrassing moment on October 17, 2025, when the Cambodia authorities handed them over to the South Korean special delegation.

According to the Khmer Times, the latest government data show that the number of non-refounding South Korean citizens travelling to Cambodia in recent years has continued to rise, raising serious concerns about illegal employment, human trafficking and Southeast Asian cyber fraud networks.

At the same time, the data reveals an even more alarming trend: Between 2021 and 2024, the gap between the number of South Korean citizens going to Cambodia and returning to South Korea continues to widen, according to data from the Ministry of Justice released by the South Korean parliamentarian's office. The figure has surged from 113 in 2021 to 3,248 in 2024. As of August 2025, this trend has not eased, with 864 people still "missing".

Data Mist: Two Statistics of Two Countries

What's even more confusing is that there are significant differences between Cambodian immigration records and South Korean official data. Cambodian data shows that 192,305 South Koreans will enter the country in 2024, while South Korea counts only 100,820 people going to Cambodia. Cambodia figures for some years are nearly twice the official South Korean statistics.

This data gap suggests a more complex reality: a large number of South Koreans may be transferred to Cambodia through neighboring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam to avoid direct flight records.

From tourists to missing people.

Cambodia, once famous for its tourist destination, is now becoming an important hub for the cross-border crime network in Southeast Asia. With the number of people travelling to Cambodia increasing from 5,476 in 2021 to 10,820 in 2024, the number of people returning to Korea is always lagging behind, with thousands disappearing on the official statistics radar every year.

Where are the missing Koreans?

The answers have emerged in the hubs of cyber fraud across Cambodia. In a raid in late September 2025, the Cambodian police rarely discovered three major fraud groups dominated by South Korean leaders. This discovery breaks the pattern traditionally controlled by Chinese people in the area, marking the diversification and specialization of Cambodia¡¯s multinational criminal network.

The situation in Cambodia and the concerns of South Korea

Faced with this crisis, Kim Ji-na, the second official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, led a special delegation to Phnom Penh in October 2025 to discuss with the Cambodian authorities cooperation in repatriation matters and joint investigation of transnational crimes. This high-level dialogue reflects the Korean government's serious concern about this issue.

The speech of Cambodia's Ministry of Interior spokesperson Du Suka added to the mystery of this phenomenon. He previously said in an interview: "Some detained South Koreans refused to be repatriated and still did not cooperate even with the assistance of their embassies. If it is just illegal work or visa issues, we can repatriate them directly. But its resistance is inexplicable, and we suspect that there is a more serious coercive factor behind it."

This phenomenon of ¡°resistance to deportation¡± suggests that these South Koreans may be subject to more complex controls¡ªper debt bonds, family threats, or other hard-to-express obsessions.

Evolution of cybercrime ecology

The cybercrime problem facing Cambodia is far beyond the scope that a single country can solve. Most of these illegal actions involve highly organized transnational criminal groups, implicating online fraud, illegal gambling and cryptocurrency scams. They took advantage of Cambodia's relatively relaxed law enforcement environment and convenient Internet infrastructure to establish a criminal network covering the whole of Southeast Asia.

It is worth noting that these criminal groups are adapting to global technological trends.Skifting from traditional telecom fraud to cryptocurrency scams, from simple illegal gambling platforms to complex cyber investment traps, their means are constantly upgrading, with targets no longer limited to the East Asian region but extending to victims globally.

The shadow of globalization

The ¡°disappearance¡± of South Korean citizens in Cambodia is actually a shadow of globalization, reflecting how the free movement of people, capital and technology is exploited by criminal networks in a seamlessly connected world, and reveals the legal and order challenges that developing countries may face in a rapid opening process.

For Cambodia, the fight against these criminal networks is not only about international reputation, but also about national security.As international pressure increases, Cambodian authorities have strengthened law enforcement, but the struggle is far from over in the face of funded and tightly organized transnational crime groups.

For South Korea and other countries, this phenomenon raises a more fundamental question: How to protect the safety of overseas citizens? How to prevent our citizens from participating in transnational crimes? How to monitor and stop illegal activities without hindering legal cross-border movement?

The unsolved mystery.

As of the end of 2025, the trend of Korean citizens "missing" in Cambodia has not eased. Behind every statistic, there is a personal story full of suspense-is it a victim who is forced to participate in criminal activities, or a participant who voluntarily joins the illegal industry? Is it a manipulator of a criminal network, or a rigged pawn?

The answers to these questions, like those of the South Koreans who disappeared in Cambodia, are still in the fog, but it can be assured that as transnational crime networks evolve, the international community needs closer cooperation and more innovative solutions to address this new security challenge of the 21st century.

conclusion

In the digital age, the abnormal flow of people often suggests deeper socio-economic changes.This peculiar phenomenon between South Korea and Cambodia reflects not only the two countries, but also the complex face of globalization ¨C under the surface flow of people, hidden under the dark flow of capital, power and crime, waiting to be decoded and understood.