Cambodia is hindering the return home of more than 6,000 Thai citizens who have been held at the Poipet border checkpoint since last Friday. Cambodian authorities closed the checkpoint amid an ongoing armed border conflict between the two countries, Thai PBS television reported on Monday.

Since Friday, between 6,000 and 7,000 Thai nationals have been held at Cambodia’s Poipet checkpoint as they attempted to leave Cambodia and travel to the town of Aranyaprathet in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo border province. Cambodian authorities closed all border checkpoints on Friday and Saturday and are refusing to temporarily reopen them for the return of Thai citizens, Thai PBS reported.

It recalled that in the middle of last week, Thailand released more than 8,000 Cambodian nationals who were trying to leave Thailand through the same Poipet checkpoint.

At the same time, Senate speaker and former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen wrote on social networks that by the closing of land border checkpoints and ports, Cambodia is concerned about the safety of both Thai and Cambodian citizens.

Land and sea border crossings are now dangerous for residents of both countries, but safe air travel is available for Thais wishing to return to Thailand; they can return home on scheduled flights from the airports of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Hun Sen noted on social media.

Most of the Thai nationals on the Cambodian side of the Poipet border checkpoint are employees of the Poipet free-trade zone, which operates casinos serving Thai gamblers who cannot legally gamble in their own country, as well as duty-free shops, hotels, and restaurants that serve Thai consumers also.

In addition to casinos, hotels, karaoke bars, and restaurants, the Poipet free economic zone is also home, according to Thai police and security forces, to several scam call centers run by Thais under the leadership of Chinese managers of organized criminal groups, who defraud their compatriots.