By Dr. Tim Sandle
June 26, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Campaigners from one of Cambodia's few environmental activism groups were sentenced to between six and eight years in jail for plotting to commit crimes in their activism - Copyright AFP TANG CHHIN SOTHY
The human rights situation in Cambodia is facing growing criticisms both within the country and from an increasingly alarmed international community. For example, the United Nations has outlined Cambodia’s increasing lack of press freedom and freedom of expression
As a serious example, apparent police collusion is allowing the trafficking and enslavement of huge numbers of people, which has been reported by the human rights group Amnesty International in relation to Cambodia.
Specifically, this occurs at so-termed ‘scamming compounds’, despite efforts to close these bases down.
More than two-thirds of the scamming compounds identified continue to operate after police raids. Within these centres, first-hand testimony exposes massive and extremely violent criminal operation.
According to Amnesty, the Cambodian government is deliberately ignoring human rights abuses including slavery, human trafficking, child labour and torture that are being carried out by criminal gangs on a vast scale in more than fifty scamming compounds located across the country.
A scamming compound is a collection of large fraud organisations usually involved in human trafficking operations, generally found in Southeast Asia and usually operated by a criminal gang.
Survivors interviewed for the 240-page report “I Was Someone Else’s Property”, believed they were applying for genuine jobs but were instead trafficked to Cambodia, where they were held in prison-like compounds and forced to conduct online scams in a billion-dollar shadow economy defrauding people around the world.
The situation has led Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, to state: “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.”
Callamard adds: “Jobseekers from Asia and beyond are lured by the promise of well-paid work into hellish labour camps run by well-organised gangs, where they are forced to scam under the very real threat of violence.”
Amnesty’s findings suggest there has been coordination and possibly collusion between Chinese compound bosses and the Cambodian police, who have failed to shut down compounds despite the slew of human rights abuses taking place inside.
The report has identified at least 53 scamming compounds in Cambodia and interviewed 58 survivors of eight different nationalities, including nine children. Amnesty also reviewed the records of 336 other victims of Cambodian compounds. Those interviewed had either escaped from compounds, been rescued or had a ransom paid by their families.
As part of its 18-month-long research, Amnesty visited all but one of the 53 scamming compounds located in 16 towns and cities across Cambodia, as well as 45 similar sites also strongly suspected to be scamming compounds. Many of the buildings were formerly casinos and hotels repurposed by criminal gangs – mostly from China – after Cambodia banned online gambling in 2019.
Compounds appeared designed to keep people inside, with features such as surveillance cameras, barbed wire around perimeter walls and large numbers of security personnel, often carrying electric shock batons and in some cases firearms. Survivors reported that “escape was impossible”.
Amnesty presented the findings of the report in a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on Thursday 26 June, 2025.
‘Mass scale’ abuses in Cambodia scam centres: Amnesty
By AFP
June 26, 2025
Cambodia has become a Southeast Asian hotspot within the multibillion-dollar illicit scam industry that has defrauded victims around the world - Copyright AFP/File STR
Sally JENSEN
While looking for jobs on Facebook, Jett thought he had found a well-paying opportunity working in online customer service in his home country of Thailand.
Following instructions to travel across the kingdom, the 18-year-old ended up being trafficked across the border to a compound in Svay Rieng, Cambodia.
There Jett was beaten, tortured and forced to perpetrate cyberscams, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry that has defrauded victims around the world.
He was forcibly held at the compound for seven months, during which “there was no monetary compensation, and contacting family for help was not an option”, he told AFP.
“Will I survive, or will I die?” Jett (a pseudonym to protect his identity) recalled asking himself.
Abuses in Cambodia’s scam centres are happening on a “mass scale”, a report published Thursday by Amnesty International said, accusing the Cambodian government of being “acquiescent” and “complicit” in the exploitation of thousands of workers.
The report says there are at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia, clustered mostly around border areas, in which organised criminal groups carry out human trafficking, forced labour, child labour, torture, deprivation of liberty and slavery.
Amnesty’s Montse Ferrer said that despite law enforcement raids on some scam compounds, the number of compounds in Cambodia has increased, “growing and building” in the last few months and years.
“Scamming compounds are allowed to thrive and flourish by the Cambodian government,” she told AFP.
The Cambodian government has denied the allegations.
Jett was made to romance his wealthy, middle-aged compatriots on social media, gaining their trust until they could be tricked into investing in a fake business.
“If the target fell into the trap, they would be lured to keep investing more until they were financially drained — selling their land, cars, or all their assets,” he said.
Scam bosses demanded exorbitant targets of one million baht ($31,000) per month from overworked employees –- a target only about two percent of them reached, he said.
“Initially, new recruits wouldn’t face physical harm, but later, reprimands escalated to beatings, electric shocks, and severe intimidation,” Jett told AFP.
– ‘Woefully ineffective’ –
The other employees in his multi-storey building were mostly Chinese, with some Vietnamese and some Thais.
Amnesty International says none of the ex-scammers of the 58 they interviewed for the report were Cambodian, and “overwhelmingly” were not paid for their labour.
Most of the scam centre bosses were Chinese, Jett said, adding that they used Thai interpreters when meting out punishments to those who performed poorly.
“Sometimes they’d hold meetings to decide who would be eliminated tomorrow,” he said. “Or who will be sold (to another scam compound)? Or did anyone do something wrong that day? Did they break the company rules?”
He claims a colleague falsely accused him of wrongdoing to the Chinese bosses for a bounty. He pleaded his innocence but they “just didn’t listen”.
Ferrer said Cambodian government interventions against the scam centres had been “woefully ineffective”, often linked to corruption by individual police officers at a “systemic and widespread level”.
Government spokesman Pen Bona told AFP: “Cambodia is a victimised country used by criminals to commit online scams. We do recognise that there is such thing, but Cambodia has taken serious measures against the problem.”
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in April that the scam industry was expanding outside hotspots in Southeast Asia, with criminal gangs building up operations as far as South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific islands.
In Cambodia, Jett ultimately staged a dramatic escape after a particularly severe beating in which his arm was broken. He jumped out of a building, passed out and later woke up in hospital.
“Whether I died or survived, both options seemed good to me at the time,” he said. “Consider it a blessing that I jumped.”
He is now seeking legal recourse with assistance from Thai government agencies who have categorised him as a victim of human trafficking.
But Ferrer said effective action to help end the industry must come from the Cambodian government.
“We are convinced that if the Cambodian government wanted to put a stop they would be able to put a stop. At the very least they would be able to do much more than what we’re seeing,” she said.
By AFP
June 26, 2025
Cambodia has become a Southeast Asian hotspot within the multibillion-dollar illicit scam industry that has defrauded victims around the world - Copyright AFP/File STR
Sally JENSEN
While looking for jobs on Facebook, Jett thought he had found a well-paying opportunity working in online customer service in his home country of Thailand.
Following instructions to travel across the kingdom, the 18-year-old ended up being trafficked across the border to a compound in Svay Rieng, Cambodia.
There Jett was beaten, tortured and forced to perpetrate cyberscams, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry that has defrauded victims around the world.
He was forcibly held at the compound for seven months, during which “there was no monetary compensation, and contacting family for help was not an option”, he told AFP.
“Will I survive, or will I die?” Jett (a pseudonym to protect his identity) recalled asking himself.
Abuses in Cambodia’s scam centres are happening on a “mass scale”, a report published Thursday by Amnesty International said, accusing the Cambodian government of being “acquiescent” and “complicit” in the exploitation of thousands of workers.
The report says there are at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia, clustered mostly around border areas, in which organised criminal groups carry out human trafficking, forced labour, child labour, torture, deprivation of liberty and slavery.
Amnesty’s Montse Ferrer said that despite law enforcement raids on some scam compounds, the number of compounds in Cambodia has increased, “growing and building” in the last few months and years.
“Scamming compounds are allowed to thrive and flourish by the Cambodian government,” she told AFP.
The Cambodian government has denied the allegations.
Jett was made to romance his wealthy, middle-aged compatriots on social media, gaining their trust until they could be tricked into investing in a fake business.
“If the target fell into the trap, they would be lured to keep investing more until they were financially drained — selling their land, cars, or all their assets,” he said.
Scam bosses demanded exorbitant targets of one million baht ($31,000) per month from overworked employees –- a target only about two percent of them reached, he said.
“Initially, new recruits wouldn’t face physical harm, but later, reprimands escalated to beatings, electric shocks, and severe intimidation,” Jett told AFP.
– ‘Woefully ineffective’ –
The other employees in his multi-storey building were mostly Chinese, with some Vietnamese and some Thais.
Amnesty International says none of the ex-scammers of the 58 they interviewed for the report were Cambodian, and “overwhelmingly” were not paid for their labour.
Most of the scam centre bosses were Chinese, Jett said, adding that they used Thai interpreters when meting out punishments to those who performed poorly.
“Sometimes they’d hold meetings to decide who would be eliminated tomorrow,” he said. “Or who will be sold (to another scam compound)? Or did anyone do something wrong that day? Did they break the company rules?”
He claims a colleague falsely accused him of wrongdoing to the Chinese bosses for a bounty. He pleaded his innocence but they “just didn’t listen”.
Ferrer said Cambodian government interventions against the scam centres had been “woefully ineffective”, often linked to corruption by individual police officers at a “systemic and widespread level”.
Government spokesman Pen Bona told AFP: “Cambodia is a victimised country used by criminals to commit online scams. We do recognise that there is such thing, but Cambodia has taken serious measures against the problem.”
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in April that the scam industry was expanding outside hotspots in Southeast Asia, with criminal gangs building up operations as far as South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific islands.
In Cambodia, Jett ultimately staged a dramatic escape after a particularly severe beating in which his arm was broken. He jumped out of a building, passed out and later woke up in hospital.
“Whether I died or survived, both options seemed good to me at the time,” he said. “Consider it a blessing that I jumped.”
He is now seeking legal recourse with assistance from Thai government agencies who have categorised him as a victim of human trafficking.
But Ferrer said effective action to help end the industry must come from the Cambodian government.
“We are convinced that if the Cambodian government wanted to put a stop they would be able to put a stop. At the very least they would be able to do much more than what we’re seeing,” she said.
