KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 — The seven Malaysian victims of a job scam are returning to their homeland today after enduring nearly two months of detention in an immigration detention center in Cambodia.

The group, detained by immigration authorities after escaping a human trafficking syndicate in early September, will leave Phnom Penh International Airport this afternoon after the Immigration Department in Sihanoukville allowed them to leave Cambodia.

Most of the victims are from Sarawak, five of them women.

“The immigration officer here told us we can go back home. We are happy to return home and see our families again, but this has been a terrible and bitter experience for us,” Nathalya Ivy, one of the Kuching victims, told Bernama by phone from her Sihanoukville detention center yesterday .

Malaysians were offered attractive jobs in casinos in the coastal province of Sihanoukville by a union and arrived in May to take up these offers.

However, what they thought were their dream jobs quickly turned into a nightmare. Instead of working in casinos, they were cheated and sent to online scam centers to work as scammers, Nathalya said.

“These were very difficult days for us and our families. Never accept job offers over the phone or if someone promises high-paying jobs abroad without doing proper checks. We are happy to go home and continue working in Malaysia,” she said.

In addition to the seven, three other previously detained Malaysian victims will also return home today.

Sarawak United People’s Party Public Complaints Office chief Milton Foo Tiang Wee confirmed the group’s release and said the speedy repatriation was due to government-to-government efforts.

“I was informed by the Malaysian Embassy (in Phnom Penh) on October 28 that our fellow Sarawakians can return home on November 1.

“I urge all Malaysians to be extra cautious about any high-paying jobs offered abroad due to the increase in cases of human trafficking in recent years.

“Never trust job ads or high-yield investment scheme on social media to avoid falling into the abyss of online scam syndicates,” Foo told Bernama in a phone interview from Kuching on Thursday. — Bernama