THE 47 Malaysians released from a Cambodian jail yesterday will fly home tomorrow afternoon.

State Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Fatimah Abdullah said they would fly direct to the Kuching international airport in a chartered plane belonging to JC International Airlines, a Cambodian carrier based at Phnom Penh International Airport.

The plane is expected to arrive from Siem Reap at 5pm tomorrow.

The Malaysians were detained in Cambodia for allegedly being involved in an illegal online gambling ring. They are also believed to be victims of human trafficking. The Cambodian government yesterday released the detainees to Fatimah’s custody.

Fatimah today said the initial plan was to fly the group in batches, but that idea was abandoned to avoid other travel complications.

She said she, her entourage and all the released Malaysians – 33 from Kuching, six from Sibu, one from Sarikei, four from the peninsula and three from Sabah – “will now fly home as a group”.

She said Malaysian Immigration officials from the embassy were getting exit papers for the released Malaysians in order, as seven of them “did not have their passports” while some carry expired ones.

Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg also today thanked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office for releasing the Malaysians.

In apparent reference to Julau MP, Larry Sng, who brought some parents to the Banteay Meanchey provincial jail to meet their detained children, Abang Johari said Sarawak had “worked quietly” on a government-to-government basis “for a good outcome”.

The chief minister said the state government will foot all the expenses of the released detainees until they reached home.

“Some of them have nothing left. They never got their salary.”

The released Malaysians are being put at the Pyramid Hotel in Siem Reap until their flight home tomorrow.

The Malaysians, aged 19 to 47, were arrested on December 11 in a raid on the villas they were billeted in at the border town of Poipet.

Eight Chinese nationals were also arrested with them.

Poipet city police chief Sok Bora was reported by Cambodian newspapers as saying that the Malaysians and Chinese were “part of a foreign mafia who were hiding in Cambodia in order to run an illegal gambling operation online”. – February 16, 2019.