Tuesday, 20 August 2024
International Justice Mission (IJM) welcomes the Laos Government announcing the forced closedown of scam compounds in the notorious Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, and said human trafficking cannot be forgotten as part of government action.
Andrey Sawchenko, Regional Vice President of IJM’s Forced Labour Slavery Hub said, “IJM supports the Laos Government directive to shut down all scam operations in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone—a crucial step in combatting human trafficking, forced labour, financial scams, abuses, and other related crimes.
“If enforced, this decisive action against scam centres would serve as a positive example for other hotspot countries in Southeast Asia facing similar challenges.”
“Beyond directing the release of thousands of workers potentially trafficked and forced to work in scamming compounds, we urge the Laos Government to implement a robust victim identification process.
“In some cases, instead of being identified as trafficking victims, workers in scamming operations are identified wrongly as criminals. A robust victim identification process is critical to ensuring that governments can provide survivors the support, protection, and access to justice they deserve,” Mr Sawchenko said.
IJM Australia Country Director David Braga added, “Scamming is not just a financial and social threat to Australians, it is a personal safety threat to the likely tens of thousands of people who are being enslaved in this industry from dozens of countries around the world.
“In many instances, the scam messages that Australians receive – whether romance, investment or marketplace scams – have been sent by workers in Mekong countries including Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, who are being forcibly held against their will and coerced into conducting online scams under threat of severe punishment for non-compliance.” Mr Braga said.
“Forced scamming” is a transnational criminal industry, fuelled by human trafficking. According to a 2024 report by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), approximately 85,000 people are being held in online scam centres in Laos, and 300,000 in the Mekong region as whole[1].
“The scamming industry has been turbocharged since the pandemic by criminal gangs in Southeast Asia who are trafficking vulnerable migrant workers by deceptive recruitment means and forcing them into criminality through violent coercion in guarded compounds,” Mr Braga said.
Scamming is a highly lucrative industry – USIP estimates that the funds stolen by criminal syndicates based in Mekong countries likely exceeds $43.8 billion a year – nearly 40 percent of the combined formal GDP of Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar1. It is also an industry where offenders in countries with weak governance structures are subject to little criminal accountability under local laws.
“IJM has helped remove, care for and support victim identification for over 350 individuals whom we have determined to be victims of forced scamming within scam compounds in Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia,” Mr Braga said.
IJM previously welcomed the announcement by the President of the Philippines in July that his government would ban Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators to crack down on the Filipino online scamming industry, and now urges further action from national governments in Southeast Asia who are facing similar challenges.
Media: Briony Camp | [email protected] | 0468 308 696
[1] https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/05/transnational-crime-southeast-asia-growing-threat-global-peace-and-security
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