More than hundreds of thousands of people across the globe have been trafficked to Southeast Asia to run online scams, a new report by the UN Human Rights Office revealed on Tuesday (29 August). It has been estimated that over 120,000 people in Myanmar, and at least 100,000 in Cambodia, have been trafficked and forced to run online scam rackets. However, the full extent of trafficking for online scams in Southeast Asia is hard to estimate accurately because of its clandestine nature and gap in official response.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being forcibly engaged by organised criminal gangs into online criminality in Southeast Asia – from romance-investment scams & crypto fraud to illegal gambling – a report issued today by UN Human Rights shows: https://t.co/85UUa0Ev0j pic.twitter.com/xr4rF76rwo
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) August 29, 2023
Though it is a global menace that is continuing unabated, the report found that most of the victims who were trafficked were men from Asia including India. However, some victims were trafficked from faraway places like Africa and Latin America.
Once trafficked, they are forced to engage in wide-ranging digital criminal activity like romance investment scams, crypto fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling, the UN report added. As per the UN report, these online scam centres generate revenue worth billions of US dollars each year.
These criminal networks have also targeted people through love and romance traps that are often described as “pig-butchering” scams. Last year, a tragic case was reported where a 25-year-old Malaysian was tortured to death. He had gone to Bangkok to meet a “girlfriend” he had only spoken to online where he was brutally killed.
The UN report further highlighted that the profile of the victims who have been trafficked has undergone changes. As per the report’s findings, usually, the documented trafficking cases in Southeast Asia involved people who have had limited access to education and are engaged in low-wage work. They targeted migrants who were in vulnerable situations like being stranded in these countries or were out of work due to border and business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there has been a change in the profile of people trafficked into these recent online scam operations. The report added that most of the victims are well-educated, sometimes coming from professional jobs or with graduate or even post-graduate degrees, computer-literate, and multi-lingual. They have been recruited into criminal operations on the false pretence of offering them real jobs.
The report at its outset has claimed that it is important to acknowledge that there are two sets of victims involved in this trafficking for online scams.
The first set of victims are the ones who have been economically wronged. People defrauded through online criminality are victims of the financial and other crimes committed by these scam operations. Many victims lost their life savings and faced severe debt crises along with suffering from shame and stigma for having been conned.
However, the reports categorically state that the focus of their briefing paper is on the second set of victims.
Speaking about the second set of victims, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while being forced to carry out crimes. They are victims. They are not criminals.”
Turk added, “In continuing to call for justice for those who have been defrauded through online criminality, we must not forget that this complex phenomenon has two sets of victims.”
Further, the report noted that nations in these regions have tried to find solutions to address this phenomenon, but criminal actors find ways to change and relocate their operations, building new centres across the region and upgrading existing compounds.
After highlighting the trafficking issue, the report pointed out some Human rights responses to tackle this situation. The report underscored that there is an urgent need to find a holistic approach to break the cycle of impunity so that protection and justice for the people who have been so horrifically abused can be ensured.
