Chong, along with fellow Sabahans Jeffrydean Jude, 19, and Philipe Ho, 25, spent about two months in the Banteay Meanchey prison outside Phnom Penh after falling prey to a scam promising high-paying jobs.

They were reunited with their families yesterday at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport, where Chong, 37, saw his wife and two children for the first time since leaving for Cambodia in November.

He told reporters that he had feared he would never see his wife, Catherine Jaikol, or their children, Meilerin (eight) and Olivon (three), again.

“My wife and kids were all I thought of while I was in prison,” he said. “I feared I might never go home.”

Catherine, who is six months’ pregnant with their third child, said it had been an agonising wait.

“The children kept asking for their father the whole time,” she said. “It was particularly difficult for our daughter, who has a heart ailment.

“Now that he’s back, we can look past this. I will never allow him to go overseas looking for work anymore,” she said.

Catherine, 28, said she only learnt that her husband was in jail two weeks after he was imprisoned, when he was allowed a brief phone call to his family.

The other Malaysians imprisoned alongside Chong, Jeffrydean and Ho, were Sarawakians, many of whom were also reunited with their families in Kuching yesterday.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed to their release following negotiations with Malaysian officials and NGOs.

Chong, who is a mechanic by trade, said he had been lured into going to Cambodia after seeing an advertisement on Facebook promising lucrative returns.

“They promised salaries of between US$1,000 and $1,500. That’s about RM5,000.”

He contacted the number given in the advertisement and was soon added into a WeChat group.

“I left for Cambodia on Dec 11, after a ticket was bought for me,” he said. “When I reached there, a man picked our group up and brought us to a bungalow.”

Jeffrydean and Ho were not part of that group as they had stayed at another house, he added. He met them later in prison.

“Our house was a big one, with some of the rooms able to fit five to six people,” he said, adding that several Chinese and Taiwanese nationals had stayed at the house as well.

“We were told to wait in the house until a job was available for us, but our passports and mobile phones were taken away.

“I am good in the workshop and I was promised such jobs, but they never came. We waited for a month, and still there was nothing. In the meantime, we were told to do online gaming work.”

That was when he suspected that something was wrong, he said.

He said he told the “agent” that he was not familiar with computers, but he was only told to “catch up quickly”. Sometimes, he was allowed to call his family in Sabah, but only for short periods of time.

“I’d barely speak a few words to my wife and the phone would be snatched away.”

Soon after, they were arrested by the authorities.

Chong said the “agency” that recruited him had asked for a fee, but because he had no money, he was told that the amount would be deducted from his salary once he had a job.

“I’d worked in Singapore before, and although I had to pay an agent’s fee and my passport was kept by the agency, they never took my phone away,” he said.

Deputy Home Minister Mohd Azis Jamman, who was also at the airport, thanked the Cambodian government for releasing the group.

He also said the police were working to pin down those behind the syndicate.

“I was told the police are still investigating the case. Such scams are apparent in our country, so hopefully the culprits will be brought to justice.

“To all job-seekers out there, please be extra careful. But most importantly, our citizens are safely home,” he said.