Cambodian immigration police forces deported 61 Chinese nationals, including six women, on Wednesday through the Phnom Penh International Airport.

Vattanac Mongkul, the director of the National Police’s Department of Investigation and Procedure, said on Wednesday that immigration police and police stationed at the Phnom Penh International Airport deported the 61 to their home country.

He said: “The suspects were received from the National Police Commissariat’s Commercial Gambling Anti-Crime Department. They were involved in telecommunications fraud scams.

“They were deported in two special aircraft in accordance with the Ministry of Interior’s prakas, and are banned from re-entering Cambodia for three years.”

Mongkul said the 61 people were probably arrested over the past two weeks in Phnom Penh and the provinces.”

According to the ministry’s report released on August 16, the authorities deported more than 2,700 Chinese nationals between 2014 and last July on suspicion of online fraud and extortion.

In a separate incident on Monday night, Preah Sihanouk provincial police cracked down on three gambling clubs in Preah Sihanouk district’s Commune III. Thirty Chinese and Cambodian nationals were arrested.

Provincial police chief Chuon Narin said on Wednesday that his officers cracked down on the three gambling clubs after a search conducted by police specialists.

“I have not yet separated the categories of crimes to charge them or ascertained the exact number of Cambodians and Chinese nationals because even the club owners could not provide the specifics,” he said.