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‘Wicked problem’: UN report details torture, abuse of persons trafficked into cyber scam centres
A United Nations report on Friday detailed instances of torture, sexual abuse and exploitation, food deprivation, solitary confinement and other human rights abuses suffered by persons trafficked from several countries into cybercrime operations in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Terming it a “wicked problem”, the report released by the UN Human Rights Office sought urgent attention to the critical need for a human rights solution to the crisis, adding that it must be centred on the increased protection of survivors and include a robust focus on prevention.
The report came weeks after the Indian government told Parliament on February 5 that nearly 7,000 Indian citizens had been rescued from cybercrime centres in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos between 2022 and 2025.
In its report, the UN Human Rights Office said that estimates of the scam workforce point to the involvement of at least 3 lakh persons from 66 countries. It added that acquiring data on the workforce was a challenge.
The UN Human Rights Office said that the details recorded in its report had been gathered primarily from 19 victims of such violations, including four women, between July and September.
The victims originated from India, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Syria, Thailand, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, it said, adding that they had been trafficked into scam operations in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates between 2021 and 2025.
“Scam operations originated in the Mekong region [comprising China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam] and this sub-region continues to be the epicentre, with satellite imagery and on ground reports showing that 74% of all scam compounds are still present there,” it added.
A majority of the victims had entered the centres from 2023, the report said. It added that the victims described being lured into the scamming jobs under false pretences and being coerced into perpetrating online fraud.
The online frauds are undertaken using a range of platforms including fake gambling websites and cryptocurrency investment platforms, impersonation scams, online extortion, financial fraud, and romantic and financial scams, it added.
Some of the victims shared experiences of being held in compounds resembling self-contained towns, some more than 500 acres in size, made up of fortified multi-storey buildings with barbed wire-topped high walls, guarded by armed and uniformed security personnel, the report said.
“An overarching issue identified in the monitoring undertaken by UN Human Rights is the shockingly high level of physical and psychological violence experienced by individuals in these compounds, where brutality is seemingly the norm,” it added.
The report detailed instances of arbitrary detention and deprivation of liberties, torture and other degrading treatment or punishment, inadequate living conditions, wage theft, extortion, debt bondage and sexual violence.
“A victim from Sri Lanka related how those who failed to meet monthly scamming targets were subject to immersion in water containers (known as ‘water prisons’) for hours,” said the report.
It added that in the context of the regional scam operations, there had “been noteworthy warnings by human rights experts about widespread corruption and impunity, where criminal syndicates are benefiting from collusion with government officials, politicians, local law enforcement, and influential business figures”.
In a press release on Friday, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said that the “litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heart-breaking”.
Türk added: “Yet, rather than receiving protection, care and rehabilitation as well as the pathways to justice and redress to which they are entitled, victims too often face disbelief, stigmatisation and even further punishment.”
He added that effective responses needed to be centred in human rights law and standards.
The UN human rights chief noted that there must be “increased availability and accessibility of safe labour migration pathways and meaningful oversight of recruitment such as verification of online job postings and flagging suspicious recruitment patterns”.
He urged countries and stakeholders to engage trusted and community-based actors such as survivor-led groups, in outreach to persons considered at risk of being trafficked into scam operations.
The UN human rights chief also urged countries and regional bodies to act against corruption, which he said was deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them.
In January 2025, Scroll published a series of extensive reports about Chinese crime syndicates that run cyber crime centres from Southeast Asia, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. These highly sophisticated “scam compounds” are staffed with thousands of persons, many of them from India, who are lured with fake job offers and then forced to work on scamming people back home.
However, those who make scam calls from such centres are victims themselves, having been lured into going abroad through fake job offers, Scroll found. When they tried to leave, they were “beaten mercilessly”.
Read Scroll’s reportage of the cyber-scam centres:
Source: Scroll
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