Cambodia: Telecom scam gangs traffic Taiwanese, push them into cyber slavery

Authorities have reported that hundreds of Taiwanese are among the untold numbers of captives who are being detained against their will and made to labour in telecom fraud networks by human trafficking organisations in south-east Asia, The Guardian newspaper reported.

Major operations have been started by police forces in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Vietnam to rescue their citizens and dismantle the trafficking rings.

The traffickers, many of whom are associated with well-known triads, mostly target young Asians via social media, promising them well-paid jobs and lodging in nations like Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, the report said. When they arrive, their passports are stolen, and they are frequently sold to different organisations and made to work in establishments that engage in unlawful phone or web frauds, it added.

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Vietnam and Taiwan appear to have the highest cohorts of casualties. Authorities in Taiwan claim that over 5,000 of their nationals have gone to Cambodia and never returned. Although victims claim there are likely many more, police stated that they had identified at least 370 of them as being held against their will.

At least 46 persons have recently travelled back to Taiwan. Some of them claim they or others were forced to sign contracts while others claim they were abused, raped, refused food and water, and regularly threatened. In Cambodia, ineffective law enforcement and corruption have complicated or prevented rescues. The culprits reportedly include Taiwanese, Chinese, Thai, and Cambodian people, according to various accounts.

In recent weeks, news of the trafficking network has received extensive coverage in Asia. A video that went viral last week claimed to show dozens of Vietnamese citizens running out from a casino near the Cambodian border. Guards brandishing sticks pursued the group of individuals as they fled from a building and dove into a river to cross the border into Vietnam by swimming. During the escape, one 16-year-old is said to have drowned.

Young Taiwanese woman Yu Tang, who asked the Guardian not to use her last name, claimed that a Taiwanese woman located her in a group for job seekers and contacted her via Facebook in April. A job in call or assistance centres for the online gaming and casino businesses was offered to her.

“I didn’t believe them but then we met in public,” she said. The man appeared “normal”, Yu Tang said. She agreed to take the job and was met at the airport by different individuals, as well as several others also seeking work.

They were met once more by individuals who "claimed they were travel brokers but looked like thugs" at the Phnom Penh airport. The operatives grabbed the groups' passports and claimed they needed them to arrange for sim cards, but they never gave them back.

Yu Tang claimed that once the victims were transferred to Sihanoukville and told they would be engaged in a phone scam operation, all talks with the traffickers were deleted from their phones. In addition, they were informed that if they wanted to be released, they would need to find additional recruits and pay US$17,000 in order to do so. Yu Tang claimed that when a man complained, he was knocked out and shocked with a stun pistol. She claimed that man was still missing in Taiwan.

Yu Tang claimed that she was able to get a sim and that she immediately started looking into the trafficking organisation. She discovered information for a local politician's office and contacted them via Facebook, reported the Guardian.

Police and army personnel came to collect her the following day. She claimed that despite the boss's offer to pay them to "pretend nothing had happened," they turned it down. Since then, she has returned to Taiwan.

Yu Tang claimed that she witnessed at least 50 other Taiwanese being detained at the same office where she was taken, and that the neighbourhood was full with similar structures, leading her to assume that there are more more Taiwanese still trapped in Cambodia than the authorities have reported. She claimed that many people were made to sign documents that would be presented to any authorities who inquired about their status and that as detention times increased, people were more afraid to speak up.

Yu Tang claims that now that she is back in Taiwan, she is constantly contacted by the relatives of victims and potential victims asking for her help in assisting them in escaping, as well as the police looking for her inside information. Yu claimed that so far, she has assisted eight people in going back to Taiwan.

In connection with the trafficking ring, Taiwanese police claim to have detained at least 67 people, including 16 on Monday who had alleged ties to local gangs.

Sar Kheng, the interior minister for Cambodia, announced on Friday that his department would conduct a statewide investigation into the statuses of foreigners working in or residing at hotels, rental homes, and casinos.

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