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Opinion | Cambodia’s scam factory survivors find no escape in freedom
A government crackdown freed thousands, but with no passports or support, survivors have simply traded captivity for destitution
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“I was running from the war, and I got to a war again.” This is how Eric, a young man from central Africa, described how he ended up at a scam compound in Cambodia – and then stranded in the country with no way out.
His story is like that of many people deceived into the scamming world. After fleeing conflict in his home country and living in extreme deprivation, Eric – not his real name – received an email offering a US$2,000-per-month job in Cambodia. The recruiter quickly persuaded him to accept.
Upon arriving in Phnom Penh late last year, he was taken directly from the airport to a notorious scam compound near the Thai border, where he was forced to defraud people through online scams.
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When he tried to warn one of his targets that he was being scammed, the managers found out and savagely beat him to the point he thought he might die. In the following weeks, he witnessed others being severely abused and the disappearance of co-workers. One jumped from a window in an apparent suicide and was never seen again.
A month later, Eric managed to escape when the Thai military began bombing Cambodia in a skirmish over their shared border. His freedom was short-lived, though. He was re-trafficked to another compound and spent another month in captivity before finally fleeing in mid-January.
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