UN Experts Urge Immediate Human Rights-Based Action To Tackle Forced Criminality In Southeast Asia Scam Centres

Geneva, 21 May 2025

UN experts* today expressed alarm over large-scale trafficking in persons for purposes of forced labour and forced criminality in scam compounds across Southeast Asia, where hundreds of thousands of people of various nationalities are trapped and forced to carry out online fraud.

“The situation has reached the level of a humanitarian and human rights crisis,” the experts said. They called on the international community – particularly States in Southeast and East Asia – to take urgent and coordinated action to meaningfully protect victims and step up prevention efforts.

The experts noted that the victims were deceived and fraudulently recruited from all over the world. They are held in facilities primarily located in Cambodia, Myanmar, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

“Once trafficked, victims are deprived of their liberty and subjected to torture, ill treatment, severe violence and abuse including beatings, electrocution, solitary confinement and sexual violence. They have limited access to food and clean water, and must endure cramped and unsanitary living conditions,” the experts said. Some are sold to other scam operations, or ransoms are demanded from their families. Attempts to escape often result in severe punishment or death. Organised criminal groups are reportedly operating within the context of widespread corruption and impunity, where they benefit from collusion with government officials, politicians, local law enforcement, and influential business figures,” the experts said.

Although efforts to combat trafficking are ongoing, the experts noted that measures taken by States to support victims and hold perpetrators at all levels accountable, remained inadequate.

“Immediate human rights-based action by States is urgently needed and victim-centred approach focusing on survivors' dignity and rights must be prioritized in all interventions,” they said. “The non-punishment principle must be fully applied. Victims should be able to access meaningful torture and trauma rehabilitation. The return of trafficking victims should be strictly voluntary, carried out safely and conducted with dignity, in line with the principle of non-refoulement.”

The experts also expressed concern about the lack of freedom of expression and shrinking civic space in the region. “States must urgently ensure that media, human rights defenders and NGOs can carry out their legitimate work free from interference, in line with international human rights standards,” they said.

“All States must go beyond surface-level public awareness campaigns and effectively address the drivers of forced cyber-criminality such as poverty, lack of access to just and favorable conditions of work, education and health care, insufficient pathways for regular migration that push people in vulnerable situations into this complex form of trafficking.”

Experts also raised alarm over the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the Myanmar-Thailand border, where thousands of released victims remain trapped in inhumane conditions. They call for urgent humanitarian assistance from the international community, particularly Thailand and ASEAN, to those stranded on the Myanmar side of the border and urge countries of origin to provide prompt protection and assistance to their nationals.

The experts are in contact with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Armed Forces of Myanmar, and the Governments of Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. A copy of the communications has been shared with Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, and the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. Related communications were previously sent to Cambodia in 2022.

*The experts: Tomoya Obokata, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; and Vitit Muntarbhorn, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia.

A full version of the statement can be obtained here: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/slavery/sr/statements/2025-05-stm-sr-slavery-southeast-asia.pdf

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