Southeast Asia: IOM voices concern over alleged trafficking victims of forced labour in scam operations trapped in compounds across the region without rescue
"UN sounds alarm on SE Asia scam centre surge", 1 August 2025
On the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the head of the United Nations’ (UN) migration agency emphasised that many trafficking victims forced to work for criminal scam operations had yet to be rescued.
Geneva – Human trafficking for forced criminal activity is growing at an alarming rate, with hundreds of thousands of people trapped in online scamming centres across Southeast Asia, the United Nations (UN) said ...
Too often, instead of getting help, victims are arrested for crimes they were forced to commit, the head of the UN’s migration agency said on World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
“Trafficking is a human rights crisis, but it’s more than that. It’s a massive global business that fuels corruption, spreads fear, and preys on the most vulnerable,” Amy Pope said.
Her International Organisation for Migration agency has witnessed trafficking for forced crime expand with “alarming” speed, she said.
“Right now, across Southeast Asia, hundreds of thousands of people are stuck in online scamming compounds,” the IOM chief said.
“These operations bring in an estimated $40 billion a year, and many of those trapped are migrants, young jobseekers, children, and people with disabilities.”…
“To make matters worse, instead of getting help, they’re often arrested, prosecuted, and punished. Let me be clear: no-one should be jailed for something they were forced to do,” she said.
She urged governments and civil society to step up and get national laws changed so that trafficking survivors could be protected rather than punished—and urged authorities to go after the traffickers rather than those they exploit.
… Cyberscam operations lure foreign workers with promises of high-paying jobs but hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud. Many of the trafficking victims are Chinese men.
Many people have said they were trafficked into often heavily fortified scam compounds to target victims with romance or business scams on social media, luring them into making untraceable cryptocurrency payments.