February 9, 2026 | 04:22 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Suitcases lined the floor of Nongki-Nongki eatery in Bavet, Cambodia. Most of the patrons were Indonesians. They ate plates of mixed rice dishes and Padang-style meals, speaking in hushed tones. From other tables came faint bursts of Indonesian profanity, animal names slipping into conversation.
On Saturday afternoon, January 24, 2026, they prepared to leave the casino town on the Cambodia-Vietnam border for the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh. Bavet was in turmoil. Cambodian police raids on online scam compounds triggered an exodus of thousands of workers, some of them Indonesian. At Indonesian eateries, rows of luggage signaled that the flight had begun.
Bavet is located in Svay Rieng Province, about 167 kilometers from Phnom Penh. The overland journey from the capital takes more than three hours. The city borders Moc Bai, Vietnam, and serves as a key land crossing linking Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City. For years, it thrived as a casino hub. More recently, it became known as a center of online scam operations.
Faisal, an Indonesian worker, watched the departures from his motorbike. The 23-year-old from Medan, North Sumatra, had lived in Cambodia since February 2023. He worked as a catering courier for a restaurant in Bavet that supplied meals to scam company workers. Now the orders had dwindled. "I used to deliver 1,000 to 1,500 meals a day. This past month, it hasn't even reached half that," Faisal told Tempo on Saturday night, January 24, 2026.
Beside him sat Agatha, occasionally rubbing her four-months-pregnant belly. The 24-year-old Faisal's girlfriend, took turns recounting their story.
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