United Nations human rights experts demanded that Southeast Asian countries protect people from criminal scam operations. Hundreds of thousands of victims from many nations work as slaves at fraud centers across five countries. Criminal groups kidnap people and force them to steal money through computer crimes at facilities across Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, and Malaysia. The situation has become a major humanitarian crisis affecting entire regions. Thousands of released victims remain trapped at the Myanmar-Thailand border without help.
Crime bosses torture workers who refuse to meet daily stealing quotas or try to escape. Victims face beatings, electric shocks, sexual attacks and solitary prison cells as punishment. Guards kill people who attempt to flee these heavily guarded criminal compounds. Families must pay large amounts of money to free their kidnapped relatives. Workers live without enough food, clean water, or basic medical care.
Experts want governments to fight the root causes of human trafficking, like poverty and lack of jobs. Countries should create legal work programs that prevent people from trusting criminal recruiters. The COVID pandemic helped these scam operations grow rapidly across the region. One closed facility held 700 workers who could never leave the fenced compound. Southeast Asia has become the world's center for organized computer fraud crimes.
Crime bosses torture workers who refuse to meet daily stealing quotas or try to escape. Victims face beatings, electric shocks, sexual attacks and solitary prison cells as punishment. Guards kill people who attempt to flee these heavily guarded criminal compounds. Families must pay large amounts of money to free their kidnapped relatives. Workers live without enough food, clean water, or basic medical care.
Experts want governments to fight the root causes of human trafficking, like poverty and lack of jobs. Countries should create legal work programs that prevent people from trusting criminal recruiters. The COVID pandemic helped these scam operations grow rapidly across the region. One closed facility held 700 workers who could never leave the fenced compound. Southeast Asia has become the world's center for organized computer fraud crimes.
