Repatriation a hurdle for SE Asia trafficked cyber victims

Long waits for many, wrongful arrest for the unlucky survivors, writes Rebecca L Root

- Rebecca L Root

Most of Jaruwat Jinnmonca’s anti-trafficking work used to focus on helping victims swept into prostitution.

Now, survivors of cyber-scam compounds dominate his time as founder of the Thailand-based Immanuel Foundation.

Hundreds of thousands of victims are trapped in cybercrime scam farms that sprang up during the Covid-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations.

Conditions are reported to be brutal, with the detainees ruled by violence.

Photos on Mr Jaruwat’s phone show victims with purple and blue bruises, bleeding wounds and even the life-less body of someone who had been severely beaten or was dead.

He has received reports of seven killings from inside compounds this year alone and reports of other forced labourers killing themselves, worn out from waiting for help that may never arrive.

“They want to go back home,” he said, and if they do not follow orders, the gang leaders “will abuse them until they die.

“Some, when they cannot escape, they jump off the seventh or 10th floor. They want to die,” he said. Criminal gangs cashed in on pandemic-induced economic vulnerability, and even now, workers come from as far as Ethiopia and India, duped into thinking a paid-for journey to Thailand will yield a worthwhile employment opportunity.