With criminal syndicates luring victims across borders under the guise of job offers and business opportunities, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has urged governments to strengthen both prevention and law enforcement strategies.
Regional coordinator for human trafficking & migrant smuggling at UNODC, Rebecca Miller, said countries should be implementing public awareness campaigns to educate individuals about the risks and tactics used by criminal groups to prevent them from becoming victims of scams or trafficking and fraud.
“It is also important to invest in improving financial and technological literacy, particularly among communities that are most likely to be targeted by criminal groups and lured into these operations. Alongside prevention, law enforcement capacities and efforts also need to be strengthened to investigate and prosecute organised crime linked to scam operations.
“Regional and global co-operation is also important through information sharing and parallel law enforcement investigations to address all aspects of poly-criminality associated with trafficking for forced criminality and transnational organised crime,” she said.
Last month 23 South Africans were rescued from Myanmar, forming part of 7,000 other individuals from various countries.
Some trafficking victims have reportedly undergone up to four seemingly legitimate online interviews to secure the ‘job’
— Rebecca Miller, regional coordinator for human trafficking & migrant smuggling at UNODC
According to the department of international relations & cooperation, before leaving South Africa last year, the men and women were lured to Thailand under false pretences by an employment agency that promised them a lucrative job.
The jobs were advertised on various social media platforms promising them a good salary, free accommodation, comprehensive travel and all expenses paid, including other lucrative benefits.
Department spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said after arriving in Thailand, the victims were forcibly transported across the border into Myanmar, where they were held captive for over four months inside a cybercrime compound.
The facility, located near the Thai-Myanmar border, operated under constant armed surveillance and victims endured brutal conditions, including physical torture, intimidation and forced labour.
The victims were compelled to carry out online scams targeting people around the world, working up to 16 hours a day under the threat of violence. Those who resisted were beaten or tortured and their captors demanded a ransom of about R50,000 for their release. During their captivity, the victims were fed spoiled food, given contaminated water and denied access to medical care.
According to UNODC, Southeast Asia has seen a boom in special economic zones (SEZs) and casinos — with over 340 casinos and 128 SEZs by 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted the gambling industry, pushing criminal networks to pivot towards online scams. These groups now traffic young, tech-savvy individuals from Asia and beyond into scam centres — often located in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar — where they are coerced into committing digital fraud.
Emma van der Walt, CEO of Brave to Love, an NGO that fights human trafficking and worked with authorities to rescue 23 young South Africans, said one of the biggest risks is how easily South Africans can enter Thailand.
Citizens can travel visa-free for up to 30 days — and traffickers exploit this loophole. Once the individual is out of the country, the syndicates swiftly move them to Myanmar, where there is minimal oversight and virtually no chance of escape.
“People think they’re going for legitimate jobs. They get the call within hours of applying, and within three days, the flight is booked and paid for. It’s that fast,” she said.
She said victims are typically flown through budget-friendly airlines such as Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways, often with short layovers in East Africa. The syndicates go as far as sending emergency funds to victims' accounts mid-transit, to prevent delays or detection.
Van der Walt said many victims were crammed into bunk beds, sharing rooms with others, and fed basic meals three times a day. Their promised salaries of R15,000 were never paid — instead, some received as little as R2,500.
“Those who tried to leave were threatened with debt bondage, fines for overstaying visas, and even imprisonment. Some were told they needed to pay up to R50,000 to leave. It’s a system designed to trap them,” she said.
Miller said there is a range of efforts being carried out by governments, international organisations, including UNODC, NGOs and the private sector to strengthen the response to trafficking in people for forced criminality in Southeast Asia. She said this includes screening, protection, assistance and support to rescued individuals.
“The UNODC regional office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (Roseap) , in particular, has provided extensive training to front line law enforcement and criminal justice practitioners to ensure that they are familiar with the UNODC indicators of trafficking for forced criminality. We are also working with officials to ensure that the non-punishment principle is well understood by all relevant entities (police, immigration) through regular and ongoing capacity building.”
The job advertisements look legitimate, and some advertisements have started to fraudulently use the names, logos, and other branding of real companies. Organised crime groups simply make minor changes to the spelling of the legitimate company name to avoid detection by the company whose branding is being used.
— Rebecca Miller
“UNODC Roseap has also established an emergency response network (ERN) to tackle the rising transnational criminality in Southeast Asia. The network aims to enhance co-operation and co-ordination among law enforcement agencies across the region. The ERN serves as a platform for the timely exchange of information among law enforcement agencies from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam,” she said.
Miller said while thousands of people continue to be deceived into cyber-enabled fraud and online gambling, there is now a significant proportion that enter the scam workforce willingly, and who are not trafficking victims.
She said while trafficking victims are recruited in different ways, most recruitment occurs through fraudulent job advertisements on messaging apps and social media platforms such as Facebook (Meta) and Instagram.
According to Miller, recruitment advertisements and posts rarely include the names of the companies that are offering jobs.
“There is usually no more specific address or location of the work other than, for example, Sihanoukville or Cambodia. The only contact is a profile on a social media site. The pay offer is usually the equivalent of around $1,000-1,500 per month, if not higher, with generous benefits such as free food, housing, and/or travel costs.”
“The job advertisements look legitimate, and some advertisements have started to fraudulently use the names, logos and other branding of real companies. Organised crime groups simply make minor changes to the spelling of the legitimate company name to avoid detection by the company whose branding is being used,” she said.
Further, she said organised crime groups continue the recruitment deception by conducting bogus job interviews with applicants to convince them that the company and the role, are real.
“Some trafficking victims have reportedly undergone up to four seemingly legitimate online interviews to secure the ‘job’. While criminal syndicates continue to resort to deceptive recruitment practices, many networks and compound owners have improved working conditions, in some cases granting workers inside some level of freedom of movement. However, it remains common for salaries to be delayed or withheld by compound bosses, while on-site canteens, entertainment venues and other businesses are also typically owned by compound managers and their families and associates,” she said.
According to Miller, other networks continue to apply more forceful methods including, in some cases outright kidnapping, to bring in and control victims through terror.
“Refusal to engage in criminal activities often results in physical violence, deprivation of food, isolation and various threats and intimidation. Many victims have effectively become commodities, sold between operators and trapped working off exorbitant ‘debts’ accrued through the expense that operators have laid out to either transport them to the place of work, or through buying them,” said Miller.
Further, she said the profile of the trafficking victims highlights that this is a global problem — victims from across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America have been identified at the scam compounds.
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