IOM warns Myanmar among Asia’s expanding scam-trafficking hubs

Mizzima

Workers trafficked into online scam operations across South-East Asia, including in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, risk being treated as criminals rather than victims even after they are rescued, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on 28 July, as trafficking into the region’s scam-compound industry continues to draw victims from more than 80 countries.

Scam compounds across the region are believed to hold as many as 300,000 workers in total, with the number of trafficking victims among them estimated in the tens of thousands, IOM Director General Amy Pope told reporters in Geneva. Recruiters increasingly target English speakers and university graduates, luring them through fake job advertisements circulated on social media, she said.

Once recruited, victims are locked inside the compounds, stripped of their passports and phones, and placed under constant watch, according to the IOM. Many are beaten, threatened or held through debt bondage to keep the scam operations running, and survivors have reported torture, sexual abuse and solitary confinement. One of the clearest warning signs, Pope said, is a job offer that seems “too good to be true,” along with recruitment on a tourist visa rather than a proper work permit.