UN flags human trafficking into Asian scam centres

IOM says people are duped by fake ads and stripped of documents

GENEVA:

The UN migration agency on Tuesday warned of a dramatic increase in the number of people forced into working in Asian scam compounds, saying people from more than 80 countries have been lured in through social media, with some being sexually abused.

Huge scam centres employing as many as 300,000 workers across Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have emerged to deploy online schemes to defraud often older individuals in the West, the International Organization for Migration said.

But a significant portion of those were themselves tricked into employment, the U.N. agency said, describing fake job advertisements offering lucrative work contracts for those with strong English skills and a college education.

Once duped, they are stripped of their documents and forced to carry out online scam operations amid threats and violence, IOM said. Many suffer stigma and debt as well as trauma after sexual abuse or bouts of solitary confinement, Amy Pope, director general of the IOM, said.

"People trapped in scam compounds are victims of trafficking, forced to commit crimes through violence, threats and coercion," said Pope, who formerly worked as a prosecutor of human trafficking cases.

"We must work together to support survivors, stop traffickers and close the gaps these criminal networks exploit," she said.

The IOM put the number of those trafficked in the tens of thousands.