20,000 Cambodians displaced near Thai border, UN says

More than 20,000 Cambodians remain displaced along the border with Thailand after clashes in 2025, UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said Friday, urging both countries to resolve the crisis.

A long-running border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia erupted into fighting in July and December 2025, killing dozens of people. The two countries agreed to a ceasefire deal in December but have repeatedly accused each other of violating it.

Andrews said after visiting the border that 650,000 Cambodian civilians had been displaced by the end of 2025 and that 20,000 still were. He said some towns and villages were occupied by Thai soldiers, while barbed wire and barriers prevented people from returning home.

Bangkok says it has reclaimed Thai land that Cambodians had been occupying.

Andrews also said after his first official visit to Cambodia that online scam operations remained a concern. He said more than 600 scam centres had been raided and thousands of people arrested, but that “the scamming continues” in smaller and more dispersed locations.

He said the fate of people trafficked to work in the scam centres remained unclear. Andrews said Cambodian authorities told him they were vetting people to distinguish victims from criminals, but that the process faced capacity problems.

Andrews also raised concerns about political rights, including the case of Kem Sokha, the leader of Cambodia's banned opposition party. Kem Sokha has been pardoned after nearly a decade of a 27-year treason sentence, but Andrews said his political rights, including holding office and voting, remained revoked.