Home > Abroad
French Media Agency
GENEVA – Hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia are being coerced by criminal gangs to carry out online scams, often under threat of torture, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Many have been trafficked to work in online crime and face serious violations such as torture or sexual violence, the UN said in a report.
“People who are forced to work in these scam operations suffer inhumane treatment while being forced to commit crimes,” said UN human rights chief Volker Turk.
“They are victims. They are not criminals.”
The magnitude of the scourge in Southeast Asia is difficult to measure due to the clandestine nature of the practice and gaps in the response from authorities, the report notes.
However, he said credible sources have indicated that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar may be detained in situations where they are forced to engage in online scams.
Estimates in Cambodia are around 100,000, he added.
Laos, the Philippines, and Thailand are among other nations in the region identified as top countries of destination or transit.
Scam centers generate revenue worth billions of dollars a year, according to the UN.
Victims hail from across the ASEAN region, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Asia and beyond to Africa and Latin America.
The majority of people trafficked into online scam operations are men, although women and teenagers are also victims, according to the report.
Illicit networks benefited from the COVID pandemic, which in some countries led to the closure of casinos due to public health measures.
This led to casino operators moving to less regulated spaces, including conflict-affected border areas, and online, according to the report.
The COVID crisis has also left many migrants more vulnerable, stranded in countries and without work due to border and business closures.
The blocks also made people spend more time online and made them susceptible to becoming targets of online fraud, according to the report.
© Agence France-Presse
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.