The writer says the Asean-China watchdog mechanism needs to exert pressure on the governments concerned to bust online scam networks. Read more at straitstimes.com.
KUALA LUMPUR - Of late, we have been fed by the media with too much of sickening news on modern slavery perpetrated in Cambodia.
Victims are coerced into online scamming and will get physically punished for failing to hit their targets or insubordination. Videos and visuals of their inhuman treatment have long been exposed on social media, while young female victims are known to have been sexually abused, sold and resold as a commodity multiple times.
There are two classes of human trafficking victims: the first - mainly from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong - are forced into scamming under tremendous pressure, and are almost exclusively ethnic Chinese well versed in the Chinese language. Confronted by the well-connected local syndicates, all the victims' families can do is to surrender the demanded ransom which, as a matter of fact, does not guarantee the captives' release and safe return. Even our own government has had very limited success in securing the release of the victims.
In the recent week, under mounting pressure from blanketing media reports, we have finally seen some progress: Beijing has started to act, the Cambodian government has voiced up, and even UN representatives have arrived, but we have no way to tell whether such antics are only ornamental, or they really mean business this time.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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