Amnesty says Cambodia's US$12.5 billion scam industry thriving with government blessing

South China Morning Post

3 days ago

Human rights group Amnesty International accused
Cambodia 's government on Thursday of 'deliberately ignoring' abuses by cybercrime gangs who have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds.
The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centres and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including the Southeast Asian nation's capital, Phnom Penh.
The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, it said, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement in dark rooms and beatings.
Amnesty said its findings revealed a 'pattern of state failures' that allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, identify and assist victims, and regulate security companies and tools of torture.
'Deceived, trafficked and enslaved, the survivors of these scamming compounds describe being trapped in a living nightmare – enlisted in criminal enterprises that are operating with the apparent consent of the Cambodian government,' said Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard.
Amnesty said the Cambodian government did not respond to its list of scamming compounds or suspicious locations, and that the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking shared 'vague data on interventions at compounds, none of which clarified whether the state has identified, investigated or prosecuted individuals for human rights abuses other than deprivation of liberty'.
The Cambodian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report. Phnom Penh has said previously that it is tackling scam gangs and in January set up a task force headed by Prime Minister Hun Manet.