African scam victims left homeless in Cambodia amid crackdown

Most scam operations in South-East Asia feature call-centre style offices with rows of desks and computers. (Reuters: Roun Ry) Link copiedShareShare articleIn the five months since she escaped a scam compound, Anna has mostly been living on the streets. WARNING: The story contains references to sexual and physical violence. The Ugandan mother had been a captive for seven months, during which she said she was tortured with electricity because she didn't know how to use computers, let alone scam people online. "I kept on blaming the day I came to Cambodia," she told the ABC. But her nightmare did not end when the compound's gates were opened and she was allowed to leave. Anna was one of the many trafficking victims who were left stranded amid an unprecedented crackdown on Cambodia's cyberscam industry. She and other victims who spoke to the ABC used pseudonyms because they feared for their safety. For years, scam operations — typically run by Chinese criminal organisations out of fortified compounds, casinos or office buildings — have proliferated in the South-East Asian kingdom. Cambodian authorities say they have shut down 80 per cent of locations believed to be carrying out online scams. But some are sceptical given "key perpetrators" among the country's ruling elite. The Cambodian government was often accused of being complicit in the industry and of conducting crackdowns that were just "performative". But over the past year, amid growing international pressure, the authorities appear to have been taking the issue increasingly seriously, with more expansive raids and several top kingpins arrested and deported to China. In January, there was a "mass exodus" from the compounds, which routinely employ what's called "scam slavery". Cambodian Ministry of Interior spokesman Touch Sokhan told the ABC the scam crackdown had "achieved remarkable results". "As a result, we are able to save those who work in scams on online sites, both fraud and deception, both manipulation and threats," he said. "Tens of thousands" had been "rescued and sent to their home countries", he said. "This practice is done with the utmost care in accordance with the law and has good cooperation with their own countries." However, human rights organisations and observers say it's a continuing humanitarian crisis, with little support available for many of the victims or help to get them back home. Handcuffs were discovered in a scam centre on the border with Thailand after it was shut down by the Thai military. (AP: Sakchai Lalit) Anna, who has a seven-year-old son at home, said that like many who found themselves in Cambodia's scam operations she was following an offer of legitimate work. She was expecting to be working in a five-star hotel for $US900 ($1,279) a month. Instead, she was held in a huge compound in Mondulkiri Province on the border with Vietnam and made to join a team running a "job scam" operation targeting Americans and Canadians. She had been told by the agent who lined up the job interview to say she had experience with computers. "They used to torture me every day after work, because I didn't know how to do the job," she said. "They had to torture me so that I can learn." In January, the compound "boss" opened the gates and freed the workers, apparently after receiving a tip-off that the place was going to be raided. "He [gave us] our passports and told us to get our own way, because the police were trying to catch us," she said. Cambodia has witnessed a "mass exodus" from the country's online scam operations in recent weeks amid growing international pressure and the extradition to China of an alleged kingpin. Anna travelled to the capital Phnom Penh with a group of other Ugandan women but was left on her own after they managed to get flights home. She had no family back home who could send her money. "That's when my suffering started, because I couldn't survive alone," she said. "I couldn't pay for a room or a hotel alone. "And many, many people, when it comes to night, they harass you with sex. Sometimes a good Samaritan would give her food or she would meet fellow Ugandans who let her stay with them. "But when they get money to go home, then I become again homeless," she said. A group of people wait with luggage after emerging from a suspected scam centre compound in the coastal Cambodian city of Sihanoukville. (AFP: Tang Chhin Sothy) Ivan Franceschini is a co-founder of a non-government organisation EOS Collective, which investigates the criminal networks involved in the online scam industry and supports those trafficked into scam operations. Dr Franceschini, who also works with the University of Melbourne, said the number of people from African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Rwanda, who had been caught up in the crackdown numbered at least in the thousands with hundreds still stranded unable to get home. About 10 per cent to 15 per cent were women, he

African scam victims left homeless in Cambodia amid crackdown

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