Hawks breakthrough in global trafficking scam

ON THE day the UN called on governments to clamp down on scam centres, which have mushroomed in Southeast Asia with hundreds of thousands of people trafficked into forced labour, the Hawks made a breakthrough with the arrest of two suspected human traffickers following the rescue of four South Africans.  

The suspected recruiters aged 51 and 44 were arrested by the Western Cape Economic Protected Resources team on Friday and are expected to appear in the Bellville Magistrate Court on Monday.

Western Cape Hawks spokesperson Zinzi Hani said their arrest emanates from May 2025 where four victims were rescued by the team after reacting to information about people who were recruited and promised an opportunity to work in a Thailand call centre.

“After their (job) applications were successful, upon their arrival in Thailand, they did not stay in Thailand as promised instead they were taken to Cambodia. On arrival in Cambodia their passports were taken away by the traffickers. Their freedom of movement was impeded,” she said. 

In the call centre, the victims were instructed to make calls to certain targeted individuals under the pretence that there were cases opened against them and they must pay a particular amount to avoid arrest.

“They were forced to work very long hours and they were never paid for the work done, they then launched a protest demanding their money. Some of them (3) passports were handed back and the fourth one could not get her passport. Through interventions by families and NGO’s arrangements were made for the victims to be returned home. The investigation led to warrants of arrest being issued against the suspects, and the two suspects were immediately arrested,” said Hani. 

Western Cape Hawks Head Makgato has warned the public that  traffickers often use social media and online platforms to target vulnerable individuals by promising legitimate job opportunities  or a better life, only to confiscate documents and force victims into various forms of exploitation.

The UN human rights office released a report documenting torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement and other abuses.

"The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heart-breaking," said UN rights chief Volker Turk, urging governments to act against corruption that is "deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them".

His office had said in a 2023 report that hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work in the centres, which other investigations have found are responsible for billions of dollars of online fraud.

The new update said satellite imagery and reports from the ground showed that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations were in the Mekong region and have spread to some Pacific island countries, South Asia, Gulf states, West Africa and the Americas.

Based on accounts from victims, police, and civil society groups, the report said forced labourers were held in immense compounds resembling self-contained towns, made up of heavily fortified multi-storey buildings with barbed wire-topped walls and armed guards.

"The treatment endured by individuals within the context of scam operations is alarming," the report said, based on interviews with people trafficked into scam centres in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates between 2021 and 2025.

"A victim from Sri Lanka related how those who failed to meet monthly scamming targets were subject to immersion in water containers (known as 'water prisons') for hours," the report said.

"Victims also recounted being forced to witness or even conduct grave abuse of others as a means to ensure compliance; one Bangladeshi victim said that he was ordered to beat other workers and a victim from Ghana recounted being forced to watch his friend being beaten in front of him."

A Vietnamese woman told how she was starved for a week after trying to escape.

People said police and border guards were sometimes complicit in the scam centres.

The UN said many of the forced labourers were wrongly treated as criminals once freed.

The victims "require coordinated timely, safe and effective rescue operations... as well as available support mechanisms to ensure torture and trauma rehabilitation," Turk said.

Senior human rights officer Pia Oberoi, one of the report's authors, said they had looked at why people were still falling for scam centres' fraudulent recruitment, years after their existence came to light.

She said many people sucked into scam centre recruitment felt they had few options.

"Survivors told us that they were under severe economic pressures," with some trying to pay off family debts.” 

Nearly three-quarters reported being recruited through someone they trusted.

Oberoi called for better oversight of online recruitment by the social media platforms that host the job postings.

Cape Times