GENEVA: The UN has called on governments to clamp down on scam centers, which have mushroomed in Southeast Asia, with hundreds of thousands of people trafficked into forced labor.
The UN human rights office released a report documenting torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement, and other abuses.
“The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heartbreaking,” said UN rights chief Volker Turk, urging governments to act against corruption that is “deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them.”
His office had said in a 2023 report that hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work in the centers, which other investigations have found are responsible for billions of dollars of online fraud.
The new update said satellite imagery and ground reports showed that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations were in the Mekong region and had spread to some Pacific island countries, South Asia, West Africa, and the Americas.
Based on accounts from victims, police, and civil society groups, the report said forced laborers were held in immense compounds resembling self-contained towns, made up of heavily fortified multi-story buildings with barbed wire-topped walls and armed guards.
“The treatment endured by individuals within the context of scam operations is alarming,” the report said.
