The city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, bears witness to the remnants of the once-thriving online scam industry. Luxurious high-rise towers are now largely abandoned following police raids targeting illicit operations. One notable site is the entrance of a Prince Supermarket branch, where disarray with discarded cardboard boxes and bits of Styrofoam remain as reminders of the crackdown. The parent company, Prince Holding Group, faces U.S. sanctions over allegations of running massive scam compounds.
However, the crackdown has led to a troubling secondary issue. Thousands of foreign workers, unwittingly transported to Cambodia by online scam operators, now find themselves stranded on Phnom Penh’s streets. They were freed after the scam operations shut down. Organizations, including Amnesty International, highlight the humanitarian crisis unfolding as many of these workers are victims of human trafficking, left with limited options amidst the government’s efforts to tackle the scam operations.
“The government has only addressed half of this problem,” remarked Mark Taylor, a consultant on human trafficking issues. He underscored the plight of the thousands of vulnerable migrants lured into the industry and facing the risk of re-trafficking.
Recent interviews conducted by NPR narrate experiences from more than two dozen migrants from countries like Indonesia, Uganda, Ghana, and Sierra Leone. Many recount being promised good-paying jobs with benefits only to find themselves coerced into scam work. Shuiab, a Ugandan man, shared his story of being misled by the offer of a delivery driver position, only to end up scamming. Another individual, Wilson, reported being subjected to electrocution for failing to meet quotas, recounting fears tied to the “black room” used by the scam centers’ owners.
The U.S. sanctioned Prince Holding Group and its chairman, Chen Zhi, last October for directing forced-labor scam operations, leading to Chen’s extradition to China. The actions prompted by Beijing have brought down several alleged scam kingpins, leading to the relocation of scam operations from Cambodia.
NPR’s visit to an abandoned compound revealed the aftermath. Supplies, including food, were hastily abandoned. The site, with capacity for 20,000 workers, had become a ghost city, highlighting the scale at which operations once flourished. As compounds closed, countless migrants were released into Phnom Penh sans support, while those remaining faced bureaucratic hurdles, including fines for visa overstays. Aid workers are negotiating with embassies to ease these fines, yet the process lags.
This situation created a bottleneck at the single human trafficking shelter, already at full capacity with a lengthy waitlist. NGOs warn of increasing detentions of migrants for visa infractions, resulting in overcrowding within detention facilities. Amnesty International’s report stated that rather than offering aid, Cambodian authorities have opted to view those fleeing scam compounds as irregular migrants, detaining them in unsuitable conditions without access to legal or diplomatic assistance.
An Interior Ministry spokesman dismissed criticism, claiming hundreds of thousands of scam workers have been rescued and repatriated lawfully. Yet, accounts from within detention facilities suggest otherwise. A text message referred to water scarcity issues, highlighting the dire conditions faced by former scam workers.
Leave a Reply