The repatriation of 221 Bangladeshi nationals rescued from cyber scam compounds in Cambodia within just four days has highlighted the growing scale of human trafficking networks targeting job seekers.
The latest group of 78 victims arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday night, joining 143 others who returned earlier this week. Many of the returnees said they had been lured abroad with promises of lucrative employment but were instead sold to cyber scam centres and forced to engage in online fraud operations.
The development has also raised questions about the effectiveness of Bangladesh’s migration screening, recruitment monitoring and overseas employment oversight mechanisms.
According to data from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), nearly 16,000 Bangladeshis travelled to Cambodia for work over the past 18 months. Several returnees claimed they had travelled with official clearance but were issued only short-term visit visas and never received valid work permits.
Many of the victims alleged that thousands of Bangladeshis remain stranded in Cambodia without jobs and are living in difficult and inhumane conditions, awaiting rescue and repatriation.
The incident has once again underscored the vulnerability of Bangladeshi migrant workers to trafficking and labour exploitation abroad. Similar cases have been reported in recent years from countries including Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, where victims were reportedly deceived by fraudulent recruitment agents and forced into cyber scam operations or other forms of exploitation.