US President Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign assistance has dealt a blow to organisations fighting human trafficking and forced labour in Cambodia, where tens of thousands of people are held captive and forced to work in call centres running telephone scams.
Hundreds of thousands of people work in remote compounds in countries including Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos where they run online scams targeting people all over the world, including Americans, according to UN estimates.
Some are trafficked and lured to the jobs under false pretences and forced to work against their will.
A shelter for people who manage to leave these compounds run by the Catholic charity Caritas recently let some victims go and may stop accepting further victims due to the funding squeeze, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said.
The shelter in Phnom Penh is the only one not operated by the government which takes in victims of scam compounds, both foreign and Cambodian. The sources declined to be named as they were concerned about retaliation from the Trump administration.
The funding freeze has also halted civil-society-assisted rescue work and related programmes on preventing human trafficking.
The compounds operate with support from some local elites. Last October, the US sanctioned Ly Yong Phat, a leading member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of Prime Minister Hun Manet, for owning businesses that have trafficked people and forced to work in online scam centres.
The blow to civil society efforts comes as a small network of society and independent media addressing Cambodia’s scam compounds are already under intense government pressure. Independent media outlets have been shuttered and a prominent Cambodian investigative journalist who had reported on the issue was arrested.
The Trump Administration froze US foreign assistance in January, upending projects all over the world that ranged from providing medications to HIV patients to humanitarian assistance to people displaced by conflict.
While there are other shelters in Cambodia, the one operated by Caritas “is the only qualified and competent shelter,” said Jake Sims, a co-founder of Shamrock, a public-private coalition working to combat transnational organised cybercrime. It offers victims trauma-informed care as well as help with visas and legal support so they can go back to their home countries.
The Caritas shelter received financial support from Winrock International, USAID’s partner in Cambodia. It was due to receive about US$1mil (RM4.47mil) from USAID over the course of two years, the sources said. The shelter was also partially funded by IOM, a United Nations agency which is largely funded by the US.
Neither USAID, IOM nor the government of Cambodia responded to requests for comment.
Some people manage to leave the compounds, either making their own escapes – sometimes jumping out of windows – or relying on a few rescue operators who assist the Cambodian police.
There is also a Cambodian government rescue hotline.
When victims do get out, they often have trouble returning home. They are usually held in police custody and then sent on to immigration detention where they may linger for months.
Many don’t have any savings and may need legal help if they entered the country illegally with smugglers, rescuers say.
Shelters are critical for ensuring victims don’t wind up being trafficked again, said Mina Chiang, founder of Humanity Research Consultancy, which has conducted research on the scam compounds in the region.
“In 2022, my team and I have learnt cases where Taiwanese survivors became homeless on the streets of Cambodia after escaping the scam compounds,” she said.
“There have also been cases where survivors were hunted down by criminals after they had escaped.” — AP
