Online scam centres and forced criminality
GI-TOC, Bali Process RSO and ASEAN-ACT research into online scam centres and forced criminality
Trafficking into online scam centres in Southeast Asia has rapidly become a threat to vulnerable persons in the region and beyond, as well as to governance in states where they have become embedded.
Since the COVID pandemic, the operations have grown in scale in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and the Philippines – countries that were previously primarily countries of origin for human trafficking. They largely operate in areas of weak governance, for example in SEZs, and have further undermined what governance there is through corruption and criminal activity.
ASEAN-ACT is collaborating with the Global Initiative on Transnational Crime and the Bali Process Regional Support Office to research these patterns, together with civil society and other actors with in-depth knowledge of these trends.
While ASEAN-ACT continues to support ASEAN Member States to respond to the range of human trafficking patterns they experience, these new trends are challenging traditional counter-trafficking responses. Despite the scale, few victims being officially identified as such, and few perpetrators facing justice.