Educated Bangladeshis lured, trafficked to Southeast Asian scam centres: UN

Educated Bangladeshis are being lured abroad with promises of high-paying IT jobs and better lives before being trafficked into scam centres and forced to commit online fraud and other crimes, according to recent reports by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and BRAC.

The UNODC report, titled “Trafficked to Scam: South Asian Responses to Trafficking in Persons for the Purpose of Forced Criminality in Scam Operations”, identifies Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates as significant destinations for trafficked Bangladeshis.

Recruiters often advertise jobs on social media offering monthly salaries of $800 to $1,500. Victims are then sent abroad through licensed recruitment agencies, informal brokers and intermediaries before being confined and forced to work in online scam operations. Bangladeshis have been identified among those trafficked for forced criminality across Southeast Asia since around 2022, the report said.

BRAC research also shows that many victims are relatively well educated. Among those documented, 64 had completed higher secondary education, 48 secondary education, 25 held bachelor’s degrees and three had master’s degrees. Many had been students or unemployed before leaving Bangladesh, while 57 reported having no monthly income at the time.

Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Programme and Youth Platform, said scam centres deliberately target educated young people because the operations require English-language and computer skills.

He also warned that the infrastructure and expertise needed to operate cyber scam centres are becoming increasingly accessible in Bangladesh.

The UNODC report documented the case of a Bangladeshi man in his 20s who was taken to Cambodia in 2022 after being offered an IT job through an acquaintance. His parents reportedly mortgaged land to pay $3,000 in recruitment fees.

After arriving in Phnom Penh, he was taken to the Long Bay scam complex in Dara Sakor, about 350km away, where he discovered that the promised IT job was actually work in online fraud. He was forced to create fake accounts and lure victims into fraudulent investment schemes. The report said he was subjected to abuse when he failed to meet targets and was even forced to assault other workers.

The report said victims trafficked to scam centres have been subjected to violence and forced to participate in a range of criminal activities beyond online fraud.