Understanding the actual situation is an urgent priority… There are also differences in statistics released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the police.
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporters Ji-heon Kim and Ji-yeon Kim = The government has belatedly responded to the employment fraud, confinement, and torture crimes targeting Koreans in Cambodia, but there are criticisms that it is still lacking in grasping the actual situation.
According to a comprehensive explanation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant authorities on the 14th, the number of Koreans whose safety has not been confirmed in Cambodia, as identified by the government, is approximately 80 as of August.
August was the month when a Korean man in his 20s was found dead after being tortured in Cambodia, suggesting that this was the time when related crimes were at their peak.
Considering that more than a month has already passed since August, some point out that the authorities are unaware of how many Koreans have been lured by promises of high profits and boarded flights to Cambodia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also maintains that the numbers are fluid due to the limitations of the statistics, which only cover August.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that there may be overlap between reports submitted to the domestic police and reports received by local diplomatic missions under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so cross-verification is necessary, making it difficult to guarantee the accuracy of the figures up to August.
Police announced today that they had received 143 cases of suspected missing persons and confinement related to Cambodia from last year until the 13th of this month, and that 52 of these cases are currently under investigation.
This is different from the number of reports from last year to August of this year, which was around 550, safety confirmed around 470, and safety unconfirmed around 80, as revealed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A police official explained,"The police have compiled the cases they are investigating after receiving reports domestically, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received reports from consular call centers, so they are in different categories from the beginning." He added,"The official statistics related to the protection of overseas Koreans are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statistics, so domestic investigations will continue based on those as well."
The government has decided to operate a special reporting period this month to accurately grasp the actual situation and minimize the omission of damage cases, the Office of the President announced today.
Apart from assessing the situation, the government is also taking steps to repatriate Koreans arrested and detained by local police at the scene of online scam crimes and to prevent crimes.
The Blue House announced today that a joint government response team led by Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Jin-ah will be dispatched to the area on the 15th.
Park Sung-joo, Director General of the National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters, will also travel to Cambodia as a member of the response team to discuss plans for the repatriation of detained Koreans with Cambodian authorities and to jointly investigate the torture death of a Korean university student that occurred there. The National Intelligence Service will also participate in the response team.
In addition, the National Police Agency plans to proactively launch an international cooperation body and conduct joint operations to respond to kidnappings and detentions of our citizens occurring in ASEAN countries.
