Approximately 80 South Koreans remain unaccounted for after entering Cambodia in the wake of a surge in employment fraud and detention targeting South Korean nationals.

A foreign ministry official said Tuesday that it had received reports of 330 South Korean citizens losing contact with acquaintances or being detained after entering Cambodia between January and August of this year, compared to just 220 reported in 2024.

Approximately 260 of the 330 individuals impacted this year are no longer in detention or have re-established contact, as have 210 of the 220 reported last year.

The ministry is currently cross-checking the 80 remaining open cases with police records.

The National Police Industry had stated earlier the same day that 143 disappearances and detentions of South Korean citizens in Cambodia had been reported in the past two years and that it had not yet located 52 of the targeted individuals.

The presidential office also announced that day that it would consider raising the travel alert for Cambodia to "exercise caution" and issuing a special advisory warning its citizens against traveling to certain parts of the Southeast Asian country.