Amnesty says Cambodia is enabling brutal scam industry

Human rights group Amnesty International accused Cambodia’s government on Thursday of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs who have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds.

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The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh.

The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razorwire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, it said, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement in dark rooms, and beatings.

Amnesty said its findings revealed a “pattern of state failures” that allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, identify and assist victims, and regulate security companies and tools of torture.