Immigration authorities yesterday deported 52 people found living illegally in Cambodia, bringing the total number of people booted out of the Kingdom since the government began a census of foreigners last July to nearly 3,000.

As with yesterday’s deportees, most of the people caught during the General Department of Immigration’s ongoing raids have been Vietnamese working in the country without passports or on expired visas.

Uk Hai Seila, investigations head at the Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department, said yesterday that 48 Vietnamese workers had been sent across the border at Bavet.

He said three other people – Bangladeshi, Dutch and Nigerian nationals – were flown out of the country, while a Thai national was deported through Poipet.

This followed the expulsion of 38 Vietnamese illegal immigrants by Tbong Khmum provincial police on Tuesday.

Since July 2014, Hai Seila said, 2,942 people of 43 nationalities have been deported. Of these, 2,534 are Vietnamese, he said.

Currently, 39 foreigners are detained awaiting deportation after overstaying visas, including Vietnamese, American, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Ghanaian citizens.