TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — 151 people had returned from Cambodia after falling victim to human trafficking and fraud rings, the government said Thursday (Sept. 1).

Over the past months, more than 4,600 Taiwanese have traveled to Cambodia but not returned, with about 300 estimated to have been lured to the Southeast Asian country with offers of high-paying jobs. After arriving, they were forced to take part in telecom scams, and sometimes imprisoned, mistreated, and tortured.

Until Thursday, 151 Taiwanese had been freed and returned home with assistance from the private sector and from government offices, CNA reported. Cabinet Spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said that the special government taskforce was not only helping the victims, but also actively tracking down the involvement of human smugglers inside Taiwan.

The authorities had detained 43 suspects in 53 cases, while a small minority of Taiwanese returned from Cambodia had been suspected of fraud ring membership, Lo said. He added that the government would continue its crackdown on telecom fraud schemes both inside and outside the country.