Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Cambodia’s government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds.
The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh.
The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement in dark rooms and beatings, Amnesty International said.
Photo: Reuters
The group said its findings revealed a “pattern of state failures” that allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, identify and assist people who have been targeted, and regulate security companies and tools of torture.
Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona said the country rejected allegations of inaction, pointing to a task force led by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet formed in January and saying the report was “exaggerated.”
Cambodia was one of the victims of the scam industry and wanted cooperation rather than blame, Bona said.
While Cambodia has overseen raids that have freed some trafficked workers, Amnesty said it found more than two-thirds of scam compounds were either not investigated by police or had continued to operate even after police interventions.
Two compounds did appear to have been shut down, the group said.
During rescue efforts, police did not enter compounds, but met representatives who handed over only the person who had called for help, the group said, while some survivors were beaten by their bosses after trying to contact the police.
The government spokesman did not respond to those claims.
“Deceived, trafficked and enslaved, the survivors of these scamming compounds describe being trapped in a living nightmare — enlisted in criminal enterprises that are operating with the apparent consent of the Cambodian government,” Amnesty International secretary-general Agnes Callamard said.
Cambodia emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a hub for the global scam industry as mostly Chinese-led criminal groups repurposed unused casinos and hotels as scam centers housing as many as 100,000 people, according to the UN.
Similar enclaves have flourished in Myanmar and Laos.
The industry in Cambodia generates more than US$12.5 billion annually — half of the country’s GDP, according to the US Institute for Peace.
The criminal gangs entice people with fake job offers posted on social media and then force them to financially exploit people online including through fake romances or “pig-butchering” schemes in which the scammer builds trust with a target before stealing their money, Amnesty said.
Nine out of 58 people caught up in the scams and interviewed by Amnesty were children, the group said, including a 16-year-old from China who was kicked and barred from leaving.
Amnesty said it had confirmed the death of a Chinese child in one compound.
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba’s elderly people struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America’s poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for about 2.4 million inhabitants — more than one-quarter of the population — aged 60 and older. Sixty is the age at which women — for men it is 65 — qualify for the state pension, which starts at 1,528 pesos per month. That is less than US$13
RSS