Asia human trafficking ‘a global crisis’
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Asia human trafficking ‘a global crisis’

Scam operations that took root in the region during pandemic are growing, says interpol

Barbed wire fences are seen outside the shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in the coastal city of Sihanoukville in September 2022. (Photo: Reuters)
Barbed wire fences are seen outside the shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in the coastal city of Sihanoukville in September 2022. (Photo: Reuters)

SINGAPORE - Organised crime rings that fuelled an “explosion” of human trafficking and cyber scam centres during the pandemic have expanded from Southeast Asia into a global network making up to $3 trillion a year, the head of Interpol said on Wednesday.

“Driven by online anonymity, inspired by new business models and accelerated by Covid, these organised crime groups are now working at a scale that was unimaginable a decade ago,” Interpol secretary-general Jurgen Stock said at a briefing at the Singapore office of the global police coordination body

“What began as a regional crime threat in Southeast Asia has become a global human trafficking crisis, with millions of victims, both in the cyber scam centres and as targets.”

The new cyber-scam centres, often staffed by unwilling staff trafficked with the promise of legitimate jobs, had helped organised crime groups diversify their revenue from drug trafficking, Stock said.

Drug trafficking businesses still contributed 40% to 70% of criminal groups’ income, he said.

“But we see groups clearly diversifying their criminal businesses using drug trafficking routes also for trafficking of human beings, trafficking of arms, intellectual property, stolen products, car theft,” Stock said.

About $2 trillion to $3 trillion in illicit proceeds are channeled through the global financial system annually, he said, adding that an organised crime group can make $50 billion a year.

The United Nations said last year that more than 100,000 people had been trafficked into online scam centres in Cambodia. In November, Myanmar handed over thousands of fugitive Chinese telecom fraud suspects to China.

A Reuters investigation last year detailed the emergence in Thailand of one branch of such alleged cyber-crime and its financing.

Stock praised Singapore for its success in uncovering a money laundering case last year involving seized assets amounting to over S$3 billion ($2.2 billion).

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