South-East Asia's slavery scam

Hundreds of South-East Asians are being held captive and forced to work in scam networks by human traffickers. Despite the world knowing the truth behind these dark telecom scams, it’s been over a month and nothing has been done.

Credit: BBC News.

By: Derry Salter.

The trafficking ring came to light in mid August after a video went viral of dozens of Vietnamese people fleeing a casino in Cambodia, even jumping into a river to attempt to swim away.

The scam is simple: people from South-East Asia get contacted via social media with the offer of paid work and accommodation in luxurious countries. The destination list boasts the likes of Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos but the true destination is much different. On arrival, the victims’ passports are taken and the people are trafficked to work in offices running illegal telemarketing scams. The workers are subjected to isolation and threats of violence to keep them entrapped.

Experts believe that those targeted are most often young people with a good education, who are computer literate and can speak more than one language.

This isn’t a new scam; the traffickers have operated for years in Nepal and East Africa. China have tried to combat the problem numerous times, educating its citizens on the dangers of the online world. However, the dark scheme remains successful.

Police across the three nations as well as Macau and Vietnam have launched major operations in attempts to rescue their citizens and stop the trafficking, but it still continues. Rescues have been put on the back burner by inadequate policing and corruption in Cambodia, with lots of highly ranked Chinese, Taiwanese and Thai individuals rumoured to be part of the scam.

Almost 5,000 victims have come from Vietnam and Taiwan, going to Cambodia alone. At least 370 of these victims have been identified as being held against their will, but the number is likely to be much higher.

Only 46 people have escaped from their traffickers and returned to Taiwan; they have reported assault, rape, starvation and threats. The trafficking ring is hard to detect with all recorded conversations wiped off the victims’ phones.

Citizens from Hong Kong have also fallen victim to the scam, with dozens trapped abroad. Undersecretary of Hong Kong’s Security Bureau Michael Cheuk stated that the Police and Immigration department had received requests to rescue 20 people since January, with 12 being returned to safety.

There are hundreds perhaps thousands more South-East Asians trapped in slavery, whilst the world continues to hope stopping the trafficking ring becomes someone else’s problem.