Behind the Screens: Cambodia’s Scam Networks Run on Forced Labor and Abuse
Cambodia’s burgeoning online scam industry has become a hub of systematic and large-scale human rights violations, according to a damning new report by Amnesty International. The report, released Thursday, reveals that at least 53 scam centers are operating across the country, where hundreds of people are subjected to forced labor, torture, inhumane treatment, and modern-day slavery.
Describing the crisis as both “mass scale” and deeply entrenched, Amnesty International asserts that these abuses are not isolated incidents, but are occurring with the knowledge—and in some cases, active participation—of state actors. The human rights watchdog accuses Cambodian authorities of turning a blind eye or colluding with powerful criminal networks that oversee these scam operations.
The report situates Cambodia within a broader regional context, highlighting similar patterns of abuse in neighboring countries like Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. These nations have seen a proliferation of scam compounds, often controlled by transnational organized crime syndicates. Victims, who are frequently lured by promises of legitimate jobs, are trafficked into these centers and held against their will. Once inside, they are forced to operate complex online scams, targeting people across the globe under constant surveillance and threat of violence.
In many cases, the victims are deprived of their passports, beaten, starved, or even subjected to electric shocks as punishment for non-compliance or attempts to escape. Amnesty notes that many of these individuals are migrants—often from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and even parts of Africa—who fall prey to recruitment scams before being sold into these operations.
“These scam centers are not just criminal enterprises. They are also sites of extreme human suffering and abuse,” said Montse Ferrer, Amnesty’s interim deputy regional director for research. “The fact that this is happening on such a large scale, with little to no accountability, points to a systemic failure—and worse, state complicity.”
Amnesty is calling for an urgent international response, urging governments in affected regions to recognize trafficking victims not as criminals, but as individuals in need of protection and justice. It also calls for Cambodian authorities to dismantle the scam compounds, bring perpetrators to justice, and provide reparations to survivors.
The report comes amid increasing global scrutiny of Southeast Asia’s cybercrime rings, which have surged in recent years, exploiting weak law enforcement and corruption. Analysts warn that unless decisive action is taken, the crisis will only deepen, endangering thousands more and tarnishing the region’s human rights record.
In conclusion, Amnesty’s findings paint a grim picture of Cambodia’s role in a regional web of cybercrime and human trafficking—a situation fueled by organized criminal networks, enabled by corruption, and paid for in human suffering.
