Sri Lanka arrests 37 Chinese at suspected scam centre: police

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police have arrested 37 Chinese nationals suspected of running a cyber-scam centre in the capital Colombo, a spokesman said on Sunday, in the latest crackdown on foreign-run online fraud.

The suspects, aged between 23 and 44 and including one woman, were arrested after a tip-off, the police spokesman said.

“They had entered the country on tourist visas and were illegally employed, while two of them had overstayed their visas,” he added.

A local police source said 35 tablet computers, 147 mobile phones and 100 SIM cards were seized at the suspected scam centre in the Colombo suburb of Talangama.

The arrests came a month after 152 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, were detained for allegedly running a cyber-scam operation out of a hotel in the island’s northwest.

Immigration authorities arrested 135 Chinese men and women in March for allegedly running a similar scam operation. They have since been deported.

Beijing’s embassy in Colombo said at the time it was working closely with local authorities to prevent Chinese nationals from carrying out scam operations in Sri Lanka.

The embassy said Sri Lanka’s developed telecommunications infrastructure, favourable geographical location and relatively lenient visa policies encouraged fraud gangs to move to the South Asian nation.

In 2024, Sri Lankan authorities detained 230 Chinese nationals and 200 Indian nationals accused of operating cybercrime centres in various parts of the island.