Scam Compounds: The trafficking aspect

We recently talked about how large scale scam compounds are being built very quickly in Southeast Asia, particularly places like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. In the article, we mentioned on how around 300,000 people working in these facilities have been trafficked there, and we at The Scam Hound thought it was worth a deeper look as to how victims ended up there.

To be clear, there people are not employees. A report by the United Nations says that a lof the time they are being recruited through fraudulent job advertisements, incresigly through social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, looking for people who speak multiple languages, offering a salary along with paid accommodation, meals and travel. The jobs are for a wide range of things like digital marketing, customer service, translation, construction, hospitality and other industries. It casts a wide net, and is looking for people from across the world. Another UN report claims that victims hail from at least 80 countries.

When successful applicants arrive at where they think they will be working, they have their passports and phones taken away, subjected to constant surveillance and forced through violence, threats and debt bondage to work in scam centres. Survivors have reported experiencing torture, sexual abuse, starvation, and solitary confinement. Amnesty International spoke to more than 70 survivors - one victim from East Africa says she was handcuffed to a chair and made to stand for two days. Five said they were raped by managers or team leaders, while one said a manager invited successful scammers to rape her as a reward.

Police in Cambodia are allegedly aware of the compounds but Amnesty Internation claims action is lacking. One claim is that authorities came to remove a dead body, but did not do anything to free the others being held captive.

Even if they do escape, police in Cambodia are alleged to treat victims as criminals, extorting them, or leaving them in immigration centres or to sleep on the streets.

The European Union has a list of seven people and three entities across Cambodia and Myanmar responsible for serious human rights violations, subjecting them to an asset freeze and an EU ban.

There are calls by the UN for greater assistance for victims as well as raising efforts of the tactics of traffickers so people can recognise risks and know where to seek help.