The UN’s migration agency is warning that criminal networks have been trafficking hundreds of thousands of people – many of them educated English speakers – to work in online scam centres, and the caseload is growing.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says victims are often lured by fake job advertisements – mostly through social media – promising work abroad, only to get locked up, have their identity documents seized, and be forced through violence, threats and “debt bondage” to participate in the online scams.
“We’re seeing so many more of these cases emerge right now,” IOM Director General Amy Pope told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. “We’re seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scams.”
They’re recruiting people who often speak English very well, who often have graduate degrees, some level of education
‘They’re recruiting people who often speak English very well, who often have graduate degrees, some level of education,” Pope said, adding that the cases were “specifically playing out across Asia”.
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.
A significant portion of those were themselves tricked into employment, Pope 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.”
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