Governments in East Africa need to act to reduce the risks of more of their citizens being trapped in cyber-slavery in Southeast Asia, Mina Chiang, director of the Humanity Research Consultancy, tells The Africa Report.
Countries including Myanmar and Cambodia in recent years have been used by Chinese organised crime gangs to set up cyber-scamming compounds. Those who work in them are tasked with defrauding people seeking to find a new relationship online.
Many of the slaves and their financial victims are Chinese. But the cyber gang masters know that the richest pickings are to be found in the English-speaking world. They have increasingly sought to lure young English speakers from areas, including East Africa, under the false promise of well-paid, legitimate employment.
Cyber-slavery in Southeast Asia may constitute “one of the largest coordinated trafficking in persons operations in history,” according to a 2023 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The report says the scam industry in an unnamed country in the region may be generating between $7.5bn and $12bn in receipts or about half that country’s GDP.
The UK-based HRC works with governments, NGOs and the private sector to seek to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking. HRC, says Chiang, is in contact with a group of 20 Ugandans being held in a compound in Myanmar.
The group is “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of African cyber slaves in the region, Chiang says. “A lot of Africans are being targeted, especially those who speak English.”
The HRC has previously assisted two Ethiopians to return to their country after being held as cyber slaves in Cambodia. Kenyans, Chiang says, are also being held in the region.
A victim speaks
A survivor account published by HRC details cyber-scam compound operations in Myanmar and Laos. The victim was sold four times by different compounds in the two countries. Working hours range from 13 to 16 hours a day, with victims expected to keep going for as long as necessary to hit financial targets. Beatings and electrocution were regularly used to drive the slaves on.
“You could no longer feel your body due to exhaustion, and the food was terrible and limited. We were forced to work without pay, with little time for rest and sleep. There was also no proper medication given to us, and falling sick or ill never meant anything,” to the Chinese-speaking organisers, the victim recounts.
He witnessed people from countries including Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Africa and Sudan working in the compounds.
The scammers create fake social media profiles of beautiful women using images stolen online. They are told to target affluent men and try to lure them into investing in crypto-currency via fake company websites. This process is known as “fattening the pig”.
Reducing the risks
The approach from a cyber-scam recruiter promising a well-paid job in Southeast Asia can come online or in person. The final destination may not be disclosed: some of the Ugandan victims in Myanmar, Chiang says, thought they were going to work in Thailand.
Much of the media coverage of cyber-slavery has focused on Cambodia and Myanmar. In February, HRC began a project with the USAID Asia Counter Trafficking in Persons programme to investigate compounds in less well-researched locations such as Laos and Dubai. A cyber slave victim supported by HRC to leave Laos reported that Egyptians were among the trafficked victims.
The onus is on East African governments to do more to address the issue, Chiang says. More information on cyber-slavery needs to be made available at airports in the region, including emergency contact numbers. Chiang sees scope for airport staff to take the initiative and question young people with little or no luggage travelling to Southeast Asia.
“Prevention itself will never be enough,” Chiang says. The cyber scam compounds invariably rely on local recruiters in the countries where they source their victims, and governments need to work to dismantle these networks, she says.
East African embassies in Southeast Asia, she says, need capacity to address the dangers faced by their nationals in the region. There’s a need for personnel in the embassies who can coordinate victim support, and a budget is needed to be able to send rescued victims home.
Authorities in East Africa must listen to returning victims and learn from them, Chiang says. Currently, she says, there is a lack of formal mechanisms to gather and act on their knowledge or to provide support for the mental health issues which many are left facing.
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