Trending 
No fewer than 231 foreigners have been arrested by the police in Sri Lanka for cybercrime, following raids on suspected cyberscam centres in the capital since the weekend.
Officials said most of the foreigners who were arrested are Chinese and Vietnamese nationals. Authorities raked down on two suspected cyber scam centres on Sunday, arresting a total of 157 people. 74 others were arrested on Wednesday.
Police spokesman Frederick Wootler said the suspects had entered the country on tourist visas and were illegally employed, while some had overstayed their visas.
A Colombo magistrate ordered a forensic examination of computers and mobile phones seized from the alleged scam centre in Colombo’s Kollupitiya area on Wednesday.
AFP reported that the computer and communications equipment found with the suspects arrested on Sunday had already been sent for analysis.
Credit: Euro-Med Human Rights.
These arrests follow the April 2026 arrest of 152 foreigners, who were detained for allegedly running a cyber scam operation out of a hotel in Sri Lanka’s northwest.
No fewer than 135 Chinese nationals were also arrested in March 2026 for allegedly running a similar scam operation. They were, however, deported.
Beijing’s embassy in Colombo said at the time that it was working closely with local authorities to prevent Chinese nationals from engaging in scam operations in Sri Lanka.
The embassy said Sri Lanka’s telecommunications infrastructure, favourable geographical location and relatively lenient visa policies had encouraged fraud gangs to move to the South Asian nation.
