More than 1,000 foreigners have been arrested in Sri Lanka this year for alleged links to cybercrime, as authorities face signs that online scam networks pressured by crackdowns elsewhere in Asia may be shifting operations to the island nation.
Sri Lankan police spokesman Fredrick Wootler told AFP that those arrested were mainly from China, Vietnam, and India. The figure marks a sharp increase from 430 arrests in 2024.
The rise has drawn attention to whether Sri Lanka is becoming a new base for scam groups that previously operated out of Cambodia, Myanmar, and other regional hotspots. In recent years, parts of Southeast Asia have become centers for online fraud operations targeting victims in English-speaking countries, including Australia and the United States.
The schemes range from romance and investment scams to fake job offers and impersonation of police or other authorities. Human rights organizations have also reported that some workers in scam compounds were lured from abroad with promises of legitimate employment, then forced to carry out cybercrimes under threats of violence.
Pressure on these networks has increased. Cambodian authorities, following calls from international partners including China, the United States, and Korea, have carried out a sustained crackdown on scam operations, but officials fear the activity is moving rather than ending.
Beijing’s embassy in Colombo said illicit activity in Sri Lanka had increased after enforcement actions in Cambodia, Myanmar, and the United Arab Emirates.
“The Chinese government attaches great importance to this trend,” the embassy said in a statement, pledging closer cooperation with Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies.
Sri Lankan authorities have reported several recent cases pointing to the scale of the problem. Last month, customs officials intercepted nine Chinese nationals accused of trying to smuggle hundreds of used mobile phones and laptops into the country, raising suspicions that the devices were intended for fraud operations.
Police have also stepped up raids. Wootler said five raids were carried out in one night earlier this month in the coastal Galle and Matara districts, leading to the arrest of 192 Indian nationals and 29 Nepalese nationals. Another 280 foreign suspects were arrested near Colombo last week, while 135 Chinese nationals were apprehended in March at a single scam center.
In an article for the Lowy Interpreter, the Asia Foundation’s Johann Rebert and Nicola Nixon wrote that scam operators have repeatedly adapted to enforcement by fragmenting their operations and relocating across borders.
They said Sri Lanka’s tourism policies may make that easier. Citizens from several countries, including China, India, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan, can enter on free 30-day visas, with paid extensions of up to six months available.
“This openness, which is economically critical for tourism purposes, also lowers barriers for groups that wish to move people across borders quickly,” Rebert and Dr Nixon said, adding that Sri Lanka’s hotels, guesthouses, and apartments fit the “smaller, more mobile model that has been displacing the large, fixed compounds of the earlier period in Cambodia and Myanmar.”
As police caseloads grow, immigration authorities are becoming more involved in investigations.
