Forced criminality: Trafficked victims forced to work at a scam centre in Myanmar resting after a crackdown operation by the Karen Border Guard Force last month. — AFP
THE trafficking of individuals forced to work in overseas scam call centres run by cybercriminal syndicates – forced criminality – demands regional attention.
According to a 2023 report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, approximately 220,000 people, many from South-East Asia, have been trafficked into scam operations across Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
South-East Asian governments can do more to protect their citizens from such exploitation while improving victim assistance through proactive rescue and post-rescue support.
The victims come from various socioeconomic backgrounds. University graduates and those with computer skills are especially valued for their perceived competence with the digital world, thus making it easier to coerce them into online fraud, such as the “pig-butchering scam” on social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, where scammers build long-term online relationships with prospective targets, eventually taking their money through fraudulent investment schemes or loan requests.
The victims forced to perpetuate such scams are lured by fraudulent offers of high-paying jobs in seemingly legitimate businesses overseas, such as in casinos or office-based sales and data entry.
On arrival at the scam centres, victims are stripped of their passports and confined in heavily guarded compounds. They undergo extensive training to conduct online scams and must meet daily quotas for tasks including creating fake profiles and researching scam targets to craft effective personalised scams.
The victims work up to 14 hours daily and are under constant supervision to ensure they do not escape or seek external assistance. Failure to meet quotas results in violence, food and sleep deprivation, and torture. Escape attempts are severely punished, and some victims are even killed.
International or regional initiatives by non-governmental organisations and governments have successfully rescued some victims: the International Justice Mission (IJM) and other NGOs have assisted over 350 victims through law enforcement pressure and negotiations with criminal syndicates, while the Global Anti-Scam Organisation (GASO) has rescued over 500 victims since July 2021 by leveraging influence from local politicians.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) supports repatriation efforts with food, shelter, and translation services for victims referred by local authorities and embassies. Law enforcement operations by local authorities have also led to rescues, such as a Philippine police raid in Bamban in March 2024 that freed over 800 victims.
On rare occasions, some victims escape independently. Bilce Tan, a Malaysian trafficked to Cambodia, bribed an insider within his compound to escape while “Sara”, a Thai national in a similar situation in Myanmar, paid a “ransom” using her scam earnings, loans, and savings.
In 2022, some 42 Vietnamese nationals trapped in a scam call centre concealed in a Cambodian casino escaped to Vietnam by swimming across the Binh Di river. While one was recaptured and another went missing, the rest reached safety.
However, many victims remain trapped. According to a 2024 IOM report, human trafficking cases for forced criminality in South-East Asia rose from 296 in 2022 to 978 in 2023, a 230% increase. This implies that many victims remain in captivity with no means of escape if the numbers are extrapolated to the present day.
Compounding the issue, rescued victims suffer trauma, guilt, social stigma, and potential legal consequences in their home countries for crimes they were coerced into committing.
Additionally, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram remain rife with fake overseas job advertisements that bypass the sites’ existing moderation.
The above issues highlight significant policy gaps where more can be done to protect potential victims and assist existing victims. South-East Asian governments must adopt more proactive measures to identify and assist scam victims.
As many of these victims enter these situations legally via conventional immigration channels and travel methods under false job offers, embassies in countries known to host scam operations can perhaps implement an opt-in system for citizens staying abroad for extended periods to remotely “check-in” with their nations’ embassies on a regular basis to ensure their safety.
This can be integrated into existing digital identification systems used by South-East Asian countries, such as Singapore’s SingPass or Malaysia’s MyDigital ID.
Doing so can help identify trafficking cases by flagging persons who have not checked in for an extended period, prompting follow-up investigations. Embassies can then collaborate with anti-trafficking NGOs and pressure collaboration with local authorities to locate and repatriate identified victims, leveraging regional frameworks like Asean’s Multi-Sectoral Work Plan Against Trafficking in Persons 2023-2028.
Governments can also strengthen preventative measures by pressuring social media platforms to implement stricter verification systems as well as educate their users on identifying and reporting scam job advertisements. However, complete enforcement is unrealistic due to cybercriminal syndicates constantly adapting tactics to bypass existing moderation. Thus, governments can launch public awareness campaigns on overseas job scams and encourage citizens to collaborate with their respective embassies to stay safe abroad.
Additionally, governments can use their resources to bolster existing NGO-led programmes to support and reintegrate trafficking victims after repatriation. This includes funding counselling services to support trauma recovery and job search initiatives to help victims settle back into life in their home countries.
Governments can also provide legal protections to ensure victims are recognised as coerced participants and key witnesses, not criminals, under domestic law. This would significantly improve the support structures currently provided by NGOs, which trafficking victims need to rebuild their lives with dignity.
Effectively addressing human trafficking for forced criminality in overseas scam operations requires a multifaceted approach that combines prevention, proactive rescue, and comprehensive post-rescue support.
South-East Asian governments must play a more significant role in protecting citizens who might fall into such situations overseas and identifying, rescuing, and reintegrating existing victims who return home safely. — Fulcrum
Brandon Tan Jun Wen is a Research Officer with the Media, Technology and Society Programme at the ISEAS- Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. This article was first published on Fulcrum, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s blog site.
