Phnom Penh (VNA) - UN experts have warned of a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Southeast Asia, urging immediate, human rights-based actions to dismantle scam compounds in the region.

The Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association quoted a press release by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on May 21 as saying that hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have been deceived by fraudulent job offers and trafficked into forced online criminal operations. These victims are being held in scam compounds located primarily in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Philippines, and Malaysia.

The OHCHR highlight follows a joint statement by the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery on May 10, which revealed a significant growth of online scam centres in Cambodia over the past several years, particularly since 2021. The operations are reportedly run by large criminal networks and staffed with trafficked individuals.

Victims - often young, educated men - are stripped of their passports, confined to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and forced to work long hours under strict surveillance, it said, adding that those who resist, face severe punishment including torture, sexual abuse, and even being sold to other operations.

UN experts called on the international community, particularly Southeast and East Asia countries, to take urgent and coordinated action to protect victims and step up prevention efforts.

The scams are highly mobile and widespread, the report alleged, with centres in Sihanoukville, Phnom Penh, Pailin, Anlong Veng, O’Smach, Kandal, Pursat, Koh Kong, Bavet, Chrey Thom, Kampot, Oddar Meanchey, Poipet, Banteay Meanchey, Svay Rieng, and within the Dara Sakor and Henge Thmorda Special Economic Zones.

♒ According to the Cambodia Counter Trafficking in Persons Project, at least 350 scam compounds are operating across the country, amounting to an estimated 150,000 foreign migrant workers./.