Researched by Lara Zofio and Alfa Shaban
A document, purportedly issued by the Royal Government of Cambodia through the General Department of Immigration, went viral across social media platforms, with a number of media outlets across Africa running news stories on it.
The document warns “all African citizens, including those from Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, and others,” that their waivers “will end on May 31, 2026,” and that they must leave the country or face two years in prison and an $8,000 fine.
GhanaFact checks showed that multiple Ghanaian portals published the story, among them: MyJoyOnline, Citi Newsroom, 3News, ModernGhana and GhanaWeb. Others included: NewsGhana, BaretaNews, UTV Ghana, Pulse Ghana, Yen.com.gh, Metro TV Ghana among others.
Media outlets in other countries like Talk Africa in Kenya, Tanzania Insight in Tanzania or, The Sun in Nigeria shared the news too. Moreover, it has been shared on social media through X (here, here), Facebook (here, here) and Instagram (here, here) accumulating tens of thousands of views, reshares, likes and comments.
In this analysis piece, GhanaFact will detail why we flagged the letter and steps we took to verify whether The Royal Government of Cambodia ordered African nationals to leave the country.
Tracing origin of the release
When our team flagged the document on X, we tried tracing the source of the release. Multiple checks with Cambodia’s Immigration outfit via Facebook and the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s handles showed that there was no such order.
We subsequently sent emails to the email address contained on the document with the Foreign Affairs Ministry in copy, that correspondence was not responded to by close of day Wednesday when the document was gaining traction online.
What authorities say about the document
While all initial checks of announcements and documents shared on the website of Cambodia’s General Department of Immigration and its Facebook account on May 28 were negative, a formal government response was subsequently issued close to 24 hours after the viral news.
On May 29, we found multiple official posts (here, here and here) from Cambodian authorities denying the accuracy of the viral document. According to Cambodia’s Department of Immigration, and Ministry of Interior, the document is fake.
Also public authorities in African countries have denied the claim. Ghana’s Ministry fo Foreign Affairs issued a press release explaining that “following diplomatic engagements with the relevant Cambodian authorities” they can confirm that “the said notice is absolutely fake and was not issued by any state institution in Cambodia”. Also confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Uganda.
Regarding the waivers the fake document was referring to, the Cambodian newspaper The Phnom Penh Post explains: “Immigration waivers were issued to a number of workers with expired visas, often those who were freed or fled from scam centres, in order to allow them time to arrange passage back to their home countries.”
“Cambodia regularly enforces immigration and visa regulations for all foreign nationals regardless of nationality, including penalties for overstaying visas under existing immigration laws. However, the GDI made it clear that no special directive targeting African nationals had been issued” the Cambodian outlet clarifies.
What has become of the publication by Ghanaian websites?
GhanaFact archived publications of the fake document from five top news websites in the wake of the disclaimer issued by Colombian authorities. It is worth noting that the official statement mentioned two Ghanaian news websites campaigneronline.com and newsghana.com.
Hours after the disclaimer was issued, we noticed that a number of the publications have been pulled down even though others remained live at the time of filing this report. None of the outlets had, however, issued any clarification on their websites or social media pages except carrying the Cambodian disclaimer and Ghana Foreign Affairs clarification.
Analysis of why the viral document is fake
Firstly, the document doesn’t match the style and format of those shared by Cambodian’s Department of Immigration. Below in the left there is an original official post and in the right the fake post.
Secondly, various elements of the viral document do not match those of the General Department of Immigration of Cambodia and other authorities, and it contains errors. The reference number on the forged document does not match what is shown in official documents (A in the image below).
Thirdly, the stamps (of the Department of Immigration logo and stamps) look similar but are not exactly the same as the official versions on official websites (B in the image above). Below you can see the comparison of the logos.
We also observed that the Ministry of Interior stamp on the fake document did not match the official logo or stamp. It is instead similar to the logo of Cambodia’s Ministry of Planning, but still very different.
Lastly, the information in the “For information and assistance” section of the document (See C in the image above) is largely incorrect. The location shared corresponds to a hotel not a government building.
The address shared by Cambodia’s Department of Immigration on their official website is completely different: National Road No. 1, Boeung Chhouk Village, Niroth Sangkat, Chbar Ampov District, Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
The phone number is also incorrect; it does not match any of the numbers from the Immigration Department, but it does match the number from Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Finally, the email address shared in the fake document ([email protected]) is not the email address of the Immigration Department, but that of the General Department of Identification.
From all the above, we concluded that the document bearing the false viral claim that “African nationals living in Cambodia have been ordered to leave the country by May 31, 2026” is fake.
