On 30 September 2024, freelance journalist Mech Dara, who regularly reported on trafficking and cyber scam compounds, was arrested in the southwestern part of Cambodia. The police intercepted his car. In 2023, Dara won the U.S. State Department’s human trafficking Hero Award for his coverage of Cambodia’s scam compounds, where an estimated 100,000 have been forced to work – under threat of violence – as the perpetrators of online scams targeting people across the world. Dara’s reporting includes stories about the LYP Group conglomerate, which was sanctioned in early September 2024 by the U.S. Treasury Department for alleged abuses related to the treatment of trafficked workers in online scam centres.