Charities and aid workers have called for urgent international government support for victims of south-east Asia’s deadly scam compounds, following a damning report by Amnesty International.
The numbers of survivors of cyberscam “farms” left destitute and abandoned on the city streets of Cambodia and Myanmar is an “international crisis”, according to the research published in January.
Aid workers say not enough humanitarian organisations are stepping up to support survivors of the scam farms, despite the mounting number of foreigners sleeping on the streets and in need of food.
Hundreds of thousands of people from more than 50 countries are estimated to be trapped inside vast compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Malaysia. Most are enticed to the region by the promise of a well-paying job but are instead trafficked across borders and forced by criminal gangs into catfishing unsuspecting victims out of money. To refuse is to risk torture, sexual assault, or even death.
Amnesty’s research identified a growing number of traumatised individuals stuck in Cambodia, homeless and without passports or money, as “an international crisis on Cambodian soil”.
“We don’t see the Cambodian state offering victim screening for these individuals or other support that you’d expect in a situation like this: a humanitarian crisis,” said Montse Ferrer, the group’s regional research director. “And NGO support is insufficient, especially in the wake of widespread aid funding cuts over the past year.”
In Cambodia, many who have escaped are sleeping on the streets; in Myanmar, those rescued by authorities are held in car parks, military camps or detention centres for weeks at a time while they wait to be processed, said Amy Miller, south-east Asia director of aid agency Acts of Mercy.
In the past year, Thailand and Cambodia’s governments, as well as Myanmar’s military junta, have begun a crackdown on the operations that have become permanent fixtures along borders since the Covid pandemic.
More than 7,000 people were rescued in an operation in Myanmar last February and a further 2,000 in October. But if more operations are planned then support needs to be available for the thousands of survivors, who may have physical and mental health needs, said Andrey Sawchenko, the International Justice Mission’s (IJM) vice-president for programme impact in Asia-Pacific.
After 18 months trapped in two different compounds in Myanmar, Felix, 31, from Ethiopia, was released by his captors after the 18-hour shifts at a computer triggered a chronic kidney problem that made him a hindrance.
Felix said the conditions, with no medical care and frequent violence were “like hell”. “They punch you, they kick you, everything,” he said.
Some victims have escaped, hiding in dense jungle, risking capture and death. Others pay a ransom for release. An increasing number are rescued by local NGOs such as the Thailand-based Immanuel Foundation, and governments. Local authorities or charities then work with embassies to begin the process of sending them back to their home countries, but while they wait it can be difficult to find food or somewhere to stay.
IJM supported Felix with money for food during the two months he waited in Bangkok until he was repatriated. He doesn’t know what he would have done otherwise. “They were even taking me to different medical facilities to try to treat my kidney,” he said. He later had to have it removed.
Smaller aid groups and local shelters are overwhelmed and underfunded, said Miller, and large aid organisations such as the Red Cross are not engaged. “There is very little humanitarian assistance across the board for this issue,” she said.
Agencies are facing challenges amid the widespread funding cuts but also encounter access problems in Cambodia and Myanmar where there are strict rules for how international groups can operate. “It would be great if there were more humanitarian aid organisations, NGOs, civil society organisations operating,” said Ferrer.
These are not the only barriers to aid though. That the survivors were involved in cybercrime makes them less than ideal beneficiaries. “There is a major bias that’s happening across the sector in general; that most do not see them as victims of human trafficking,” Miller said. While Thailand has what Ferrer calls a more robust victim screening process in comparison with Cambodia, both countries have arrested victims. This is “a blind spot in the humanitarian resource category,” said Miller.
In Cambodia, Ling Li of the EOS Collective, which works to support survivors of the scam industry, said the UN International Organization for Migration had been unable to help provide victims with accommodation because doing so without a valid visa is illegal. Smuggled across borders, victims rarely have the right paperwork.
“This raises a serious and painful question. If international institutions who have victim protection in their mandate cannot provide protection, emergency assistance, or even a safe space for trafficking survivors, what is their role on the ground?” said Li.
Without proper help, victims could be tempted to return to the scam farms where at least they had shelter. “The potential to be caught back up in this form of trafficking or any other kind of exploitation in their home countries or wherever they are is high,” said Miller.
Tomoya Obokata, UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, thinks it should be the responsibility of governments to provide safe houses, medical and psychological support before victims can travel home.
The problem, said Miller, is that the sheer volume of people escaping is so high. She called for cross-government cooperation and for people to be treated as victims until proven otherwise. Obokata suggested governments should confiscate the proceeds of the scams to fund frontline groups. “There’s no excuse for governments to say they do not have any resources,” he said.
