It was the end of 2024. Almost five months after losing his job at a food and beverage company, thirty-nine-year-old Rasdy Fawzi told his wife, Kiki Tresia Ginting, that he was going to accept a job in Cambodia.

Kiki was concerned, and for good reason. The man who’d offered him the job was part of a scam syndicate; the recruitment agency was unregistered and the work Fawzi would be undertaking was illegal. She’d heard stories of young Indonesians trapped in Cambodia, tortured and forced to work as scammers.

“I worried and asked my husband about his safety if he worked there, but he said, ‘That’s okay, it’s fine, don’t worry’,” she recalls. Fawzi reassured her many times that his friend had been there, too, and he trusted him. He believed that he was too old for any company in Indonesia to want to hire him for the same role he’d had in mobile sales marketing with his previous employer. While going to Cambodia was risky, the salary offered would be more than enough to support their small family. It was an opportunity he didn’t want to pass up. In the end, there was nothing Kiki could do but let him go and pray for his safety.

• Tags: Cambodia, Indonesia, Issue 45, Tonggo Simangunsong