Incheon: A total of 64 South Koreans who had been detained in Cambodia over alleged online scams arrived home early Saturday on a chartered flight and most of them would face criminal probes as suspects, police officials said. The large-scale repatriation came after the torture death of a South Korean college student who was lured to work by a criminal ring in Cambodia that triggered public outrage in South Korea.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korean Air plane carrying them arrived at Incheon International Airport at 8:35 a.m., about five hours after leaving Techo International Airport near Phnom Penh. Their arrival came days after a South Korean government response team was dispatched to Cambodia to assist the Korean nationals implicated in online scams run by local crime organizations.

The South Korean nationals were reportedly placed under arrest once they boarded the plane and were set to be taken to police stations nationwide for investigations about their alleged involvement in criminal activity. In August, a South Korean university student was found to have been tortured and killed in Cambodia, a month after he was lured to the country by a job scam.

The case put a spotlight on the growing number of nationals lured to Cambodia with high-paying job offers and then forced to work in online scams targeting South Koreans, often under confinement and violence from crime rings. The returnees are accused of involvement in online scams at criminal complexes in Cambodia, with 59 of them being detained after a crackdown by Cambodian authorities, while the rest were rescued after reporting their confinement.

Most of them face criminal charges in South Korea, with some under Interpol Red Notices. It marked the largest operation by South Korean authorities to bring back South Korean criminals from a single foreign country, and the third repatriation operation of its kind. Some 190 police officers also boarded the plane to escort the 64 South Korean nationals.