by Paolo Affatato
Phnom Penh – “Cambodia is facing a dual humanitarian emergency. On the one hand, there are the people displaced by the conflict along the border with Thailand; on the other, there is a silent crisis involving the victims of the ‘scam cities’, people caught up in human trafficking, abducted and reduced to slavery.”
This is how Spanish Jesuit Fr. Enrique Figaredo Alvargonzález, SJ, Apostolic Prefect of Battambang, describes the situation in an interview with Fides News Agency. He explains that the Cambodian Church is currently committed to addressing difficulties and violence that especially affect the country’s most vulnerable people. “The social situation is far from encouraging,” the Apostolic Prefect says. “The problem of the so-called ‘scam cities’ is generating chaos and poverty. We feel its impact especially here in Battambang Province, near the border, but in reality the phenomenon affects the entire country.”
Over the past few years, Cambodia has emerged as one of Asia’s main centers for so-called “scam compounds”, heavily guarded complexes run by transnational criminal networks, where thousands of people are lured with fake job offers and then forced, under threat, to carry out online fraud targeting victims around the world.
Since July 2025, the Cambodian government has launched a large-scale crackdown, announcing the closure of nearly 200 compounds, the arrest of some of their leaders, and the repatriation of thousands of people. However, international organizations such as Amnesty International argue that many of these facilities have merely relocated or resumed under different names, while continuing to document collusion between criminal groups and local officials. Cases of forced labor, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and killings also remain well documented.
It is precisely this crisis that now absorbs much of the efforts of Caritas Cambodia, headed by Fr. Figaredo.
“All these people are victims of human trafficking,” the priest explains. “They leave their countries full of hope, believing they have found a good job. Instead, they fall into a trap. As soon as they arrive, the criminal networks confiscate their passports, threaten them, use violence, and turn them into slaves.” The victims come from numerous countries across Asia and Africa. “They come from Indonesia, the Philippines, China, but also from several African countries,” he explains. “Some manage to escape and eventually reach us, exhausted and desperate, with no identity documents because their passports have been confiscated.”
For Church organizations such as Caritas, the first priority is simply to welcome them. “The first thing is to recognize their suffering humanity and welcome them,” the Apostolic Prefect says. “We have a place where they can stay and begin to recover a sense of their humanity, surrounded by people who care for them instead of exploiting or abusing them.
Then we begin a very delicate process, working together with the Ministry of the Interior and the embassies of their respective countries. Since they no longer have any documents, we must obtain new ones so they can eventually return home.”
The process, however, is often long and complicated. “Sometimes these people come from countries that do not even have diplomatic representation in Cambodia,” Fr. Figaredo explains. “In those cases, we contact Caritas in their home countries, especially in Africa, so they can help local authorities identify them.”
Each individual case requires careful discernment. “It is not always easy to understand who is standing before us,” Fr. Figaredo admits. “Sometimes we do not know whether we are dealing with a genuine victim or someone simply looking for a way out of a difficult situation. Some have been kidnapped. Others may once have belonged to the criminal organization but now want to leave it. In a sense, they too are trapped. If they try to escape from the criminal groups that recruited them, they risk being killed. That is why we welcome them all,” he continues. “Before anything else, they are human beings. Everyone needs to be loved, cared for, and listened to. Many are deeply traumatized. They live in constant insecurity, have suffered violence, and in some cases sexual abuse. Every person carries different wounds, a different story, and every case demands individual attention.”
Over recent months, this service has become one of the principal activities of the local Caritas.
“We are overwhelmed,” he says. “There are periods when we host groups of fifty or sixty people at the same time. We have to feed them, care for them, help them reconnect with their families, contact the authorities, and accompany them through the entire repatriation process.”
Alongside this silent emergency, Cambodia continues to grapple with the consequences of tensions along its border with Thailand.
“Today we are at a stalemate,” says Fr. Figaredo, who lives in Battambang, one of the border provinces. “Officially there is a ceasefire, and the foreign ministers continue their dialogue. But the border remains closed, trade has come to a standstill, and Thai and Cambodian soldiers are still camped opposite one another in the forests. From time to time, shots are still fired.”
According to the Apostolic Prefect, there is a growing danger that the rule of force will prevail: “Looking at what is happening around the world, we are deeply concerned about the consequences for our own region: if international law is no longer the guiding principle and relations between states are governed only by the law of the strongest, then everyone will feel justified in acting the same way, and only military force will count, resulting in an arms race. It is deeply saddening to see international agreements apparently losing their value.”
Fr. Figaredo also fears that the conflict is overshadowing other humanitarian emergencies. “This war overshadows cases of human trafficking, scandals, and the suffering of the most vulnerable. And, as always, it is the poor who pay the highest price.” The humanitarian consequences of the conflict remain severe in Cambodia. According to United Nations agencies, around 400,000 people were still internally displaced during the first months of 2026, while the return of hundreds of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers from Thailand has deepened the economic crisis in the border provinces, leaving many families without income or prospects.
“There are essentially two categories of displaced people,” the Apostolic Prefect explains: the first are those who can no longer return to their villages because these are now located in areas under Thai control. For them, the government has built new settlements inland, with thousands of housing units. They do not yet own these homes permanently, but at least they provide families with the opportunity to rebuild community life.” Then there are those who have sought refuge in Buddhist temples or with relatives. “I have visited these communities,” Fr. Figaredo says. “Some people are being welcomed in monasteries, others are staying with relatives, often in very difficult conditions, while others have moved into the new villages. Some of these settlements also include Catholic communities, and we hope that one day we will be able to build a chapel there.”
The Church’s response is based on collaboration among the country’s Catholic institutions: “We have established a joint task force under the coordination of Caritas,” Fr. Figaredo explains. “Each organization or community offers its own contribution: the Jesuits work in the field of education; others care for children with disabilities; others assist the elderly or distribute food. Everyone has its own role, but everyone works together.”
For the Apostolic Prefect, this network of solidarity, patiently woven by the different Catholic groups, has become one of the most concrete signs of hope for a Cambodia that continues, largely away from the international spotlight, to bear the wounds of war, human trafficking, and poverty.
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