South east Asia trafficked cyber victims freed but far from home

BANGKOK – Most of Mr Jaruwat Jinnmonca’s anti-trafficking work used to focus on helping victims swept into prostitution. Now, survivors of cyberscam 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 South-east Asia, according to the UN.

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

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

He has received reports of seven killings from inside compounds in 2025 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, jump off the seventh or 10th floor. They want to die,” Mr Jinnmonca added.

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.

Instead they spend their days tethered to technology, generating fake social media profiles and compelling stories to swindle money from unsuspecting people, contributing to a cybercrime economy that accounted for US$8 trillion (S$10.3 trillion) in losses in 2023.

In February, under pressure from China after well-known Chinese actor Wang Xing was trafficked, the Myanmar authorities and the Thai government collaborated in the biggest rescue operation yet.

By shutting down the internet and stopping fuel supplies and electricity in Myawaddy, Myanmar, the authorities were able to debilitate several compounds, leading to the release of