Although human rights violations occur in Cambodia, casinos in Cambodia are not subject to government intervention. warned Amnesty International on Thursday.
The human rights organization said at least a dozen casinos were directly linked to it fraudulent connectionsWhere Torture, forced labor, child labor and human trafficking occurred. Montse Ferrer, Amnesty’s co-regional director, accused the Cambodian government of not only complicity in these abuses but also “legitimizing” them, stating:
At a time when the government says it is dismantling the fraud industry, the evidence shows it is simultaneously acknowledging the plans for casino properties that are home to abusive fraud complexes… This contradiction raises urgent questions about whether Cambodian regulators are legitimizing companies linked to serious abuses. Authorities must explain why casinos with documented links to human trafficking and torture continue to receive official approval.
In June 2025, Amnesty visited more than 50 fraudulent connections over an 18-month period. It published its Insights in a 242-page report detailing the victims’ horrific experiences at the site as well as multiple violations of international law. Abuses were often facilitated by private security forces, who have no legal authority to deprive people of their liberty except in very limited circumstances.
Also the US State Department published has produced its own human trafficking report on the country and found that the Cambodian government has not explicitly reported prosecuting labor traffickers since 2022.
“The Cambodian government does not fully meet the minimum standards to eliminate human trafficking and is not making significant efforts to achieve this,” the report said.
Two survivors told Amnesty they were detained for months, threatened with electric batons and forced to open bank accounts where money was laundered. One survivor, crying, thought: “The guards entered the room and triggered the electric shock batons… there was a terrible noise. The children in the room were crying.”
Another said she was trafficked at the age of 18 and was forced to work on scams. She was brutally beaten when she tried to escape. Many people have been lured into these scams through false advertising on various social media platforms.
Following Amnesty’s 2025 report, Cambodian authorities said they had arrested more than 1,000 people in raids in at least five provinces and continued to crack down on these centers. However, many continue to do so claim that the government is still complicit in serious human rights violations.
