Southeast Asia has long emerged as a major hub of highly organized online fraud operations, targeting people all around the world. According to the United Nations, these operations generate tens of billions of dollars annually, having long surpassed the illegal drug trade as the most profitable activity for criminal networks, as reported by the United States Institute of Peace. However, those who fall prey to scams and other fraudulent activities aren't the only victims of these criminal rings; the scam industry in Southeast Asia alone is powered by at least 300,000 trafficked workers from 66 countries, who are routinely subjected to torture, sexual abuse, and forced labor, according to a recent UN Human Rights report.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video African nationals now form the largest group of those trafficked to and stranded in countries like Myanmar and Cambodia, without any viable pathway to go back home, says the NGO Freedom Collaborative. In Cambodia, one of the main obstacles for facilitating any return is the fact that many African countries like Uganda, Liberia, Ghana, of Nigeria have no consular representation. "But also because some countries have zero interest," says Montse Ferrer, co-regional director of Amnesty International, who finds equal blame for the situation in many of the countries of origin.
"They're not even picking up the phone, let alone providing the paperwork for the money for them to go back." Ferrer believes that keeping the situation unchanged has also been in the interest of the Cambodian government for a long time: Many trafficking victims now have overstay fines for their visas against their names in Cambodia, reaching thousands of dollars in many instances. "They don't allow NGOs to provide the support these people need, and instead they have resorted to arresting and threatening them," Ferrer told DW. Following great pressure from the international community — including threats of financial sanctions by the US, the UK, Canada and the European Union — Cambodia did eventually agree to launch a crackdown on the scamming industry earlier this year.
According to the Cambodian Ministry of Information, the initiative resulted in many arrests and triggered a mass exodus of dubious operatives from scamming industry. But the crackdown also created a secondary crisis: Thousands of trafficked foreign workers remain stranded in the country without documentation nor legal status; now, they also lack shelter and money in many instances, NGOs say. Many who have sought in Cambodia help have reportedly been placed in immigration detention, while others have to sleep rough and beg for food.
Instead of being given protection, many of the trafficking often victims now face stigmatization and abuse on the street of the capital Phnom Penh and elsewhere. Emmanuel David is one of many of the trafficking victims stuck in Cambodia. The 28-year-old Liberian national arrived there last year after a treacherous irregular journey originating in Vietnam.
"My friend told me there was work in Cambodia, but he did not explain that it was scamming work," David explained. The scamming company had offered him a lucrative deal of making around $800 (€700) per month, which is more than double the average wage for qualified individuals in Liberia, according to the Civil Service Agency of Liberia. The reality hit quite differently: Once there, he was forced to work 14 hours a day to deceive women on various dating apps to part with their money.
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