Thousands of Freed Scam Center Workers Now Trapped in Overcrowded Detention Centers (apnews.com)
- Reference: 0176663555
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/03/10/0321237/thousands-of-freed-scam-center-workers-now-trapped-in-overcrowded-detention-centers
- Source link: https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-thailand-scam-centers-trapped-humanitarian-c1cab4785e14f07859ed59c821a72bd2
[2]February, 2025 : A coordinated response begins by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities, which includes cutting power, internet, and fuel supplies to the scam centers.
[3]Today: The Associated Press reports that thousands of the people liberated from locked compounds in Myanmar now "have found themselves trapped once again, this time in overcrowded facilities with no medical care, limited food and no idea when they'll be sent home."
> Thousands of sick, exhausted and terrified young men and women, from countries all over the world squat in rows, packed shoulder to shoulder, surgical masks covering their mouths and eyes. Their nightmare was supposed to be over... The armed groups who are holding the survivors, as well as Thai officials across the border, say they are awaiting action from the detainees' home governments. It's one of the largest potential rescues of forced laborers in modern history, but advocates say the first major effort to crack down on the cyber scam industry has turned into a growing humanitarian crisis...
>
> An unconfirmed list provided by authorities in Myanmar says they're holding citizens from 29 countries including Philippines, Kenya and the Czech Republic. Authorities in Thailand say they cannot allow foreigners to cross the border from Myanmar unless they can be sent home immediately, leaving many to wait for help from embassies that has been long in coming. China sent a chartered flight Thursday to the tiny Mae Sot airport to pick up a group of its citizens, but few other governments have matched that. There are roughly 130 Ethiopians waiting in a Thai military base, stuck for want of a $600 plane ticket. Dozens of Indonesians were bused out one morning last week, pushing suitcases and carrying plastic bags with their meager possessions as they headed to Bangkok for a flight home... The recent abrupt halt to U.S. foreign aid funding has made it even harder to get help to released scam center workers...
>
> It's not clear how much of an effect these releases will have on the criminal groups that run the scam centers. February marked the third time the Thais have cut internet or electricity to towns across the river. Each time, the compounds have managed to work around the cuts. Large compounds have access to diesel-powered generators, as well as access to internet provider Starlink, experts working with law enforcement say.
The article also points out that "The people released are just a small fraction of what could be 300,000 people working in similar scam operations across the region, according to an estimate from the United States Institute of Peace. Human rights groups and analysts add that the networks that run these illegal scams will continue to operate unless much broader action is taken against them..."
"The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes estimates that between $18 billion and $37 billion was lost in Asia alone in 2023, with minimal government action against the criminal industry's spread."
[1] https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/08/19/0629215/thousands-of-crypto-scammers-are-enslaved-by-human-trafficking-gangsters-says-bloomberg-reporter
[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/02/05/1348250/thailand-cuts-internet-and-power-supply-to-some-areas-in-myanmar-in-blow-to-scam-centers
[3] https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-thailand-scam-centers-trapped-humanitarian-c1cab4785e14f07859ed59c821a72bd2
Re:I have an idea (Score:5, Insightful)
You, and people like you are unbelievably dangerous. When you constantly use the word NAZI to pejoratively describe everything you don't like because you cannot form a cogent and coherent argument, you devalue the word NAZI and the real horrible things that real NAZIs did. If literally everyone is a NAZI then when real NAZIs do real NAZI things, how will anyone tell the difference? Learn to have an argument or stay off the internet.
You are embarrassing.
Re: (Score:2)
While I do not disagree in principle, suggesting that they all be executed to get rid of them is a very Nazi sort of idea.
Re: I have an idea (Score:1)
Only if the only thing you remember from history is Nazism
Re: (Score:2)
Do you somehow have a mental disability? What you claim makes zero sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed, it is. Looks to me like some people are deep in denial about what the NSDAP and its members stood for.
Related to Musk just recently crapping publicly on all the people murdered by the Nazis?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If it acts like a Nazi, then it should be treated like a Nazi.
Whether or not it is a dyed-in-the-wool, Swastika-bearing, Roman-saluting Nazi is beside the point. What matters is its view on ethnic cleansing.
Re: (Score:2)
Here's the thing, you twat. He was angry because of their vocation, not their ethnicities. And "Nazi" actually is massively overused. Ethnic cleansing? Fine. Use it for people who want ethnic cleansing It's inaccurate, but not terribly abusive to history. But when you extend that to "anyone who uses similar language to people who don't like illegal immigrants" you're back to redefining "Nazi" as "someone I don't like" and making ignorant people think the actual Nazis must not have been so bad.
Re: (Score:1)
> and making ignorant people think the actual Nazis must not have been so bad.
No, you've got me confused with Felon Husk.
Come at me bro (Score:2)
I'm never going to stop mocking Leon. NEVER. If they send me to an oven my last words will be ELON IS A BITCH
Re: (Score:2)
Nazis executed plenty of people because of their vocation too.
Re: (Score:1)
You know what else most Nazis did? They drank water. And Hitler was a vegetarian toward the end. Clearly we all need to switch to soda, coffee, and meat. And the death penalty is right out.
Re: (Score:1)
Read up on history. Just murdering people that are not members of the Herrenrasse and have outlived their usefulness is _also_ a very Nazi thing to do. You claim is simplistic, ignorant and wrong.
Yes, some people like to overuse the term "Nazi". For the case at hand, it is accurate.
Re: (Score:2)
If someone talking with you said "I believe in Hitler and National Socialism" would you clock them as a "Nazi"?
Without doing the strain on credulity where we analyze every aspect of that idea, would that statement not at least give you a moment of pause about their belief system?
Re: (Score:2)
I think their ethnicity is all True Scotsman, unless you say there's no such thing.
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If we start worrying about how ignorant people take things, then we've already lost.
Ignorant people should be trying to not be ignorant, rather than the rest of us bending over for them so they can continue wallowing in ignorance.
What the fuck, dude.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Nope. You are unaware of history. The proposed course of action I criticize is one that would have made perfect sense to the 3rd Reich Nazis.
There is no problem in my side here. There is a massive problem on your side as you are currently trying to normalize calls for mass-murder. You are scum.
Re: (Score:3)
> you devalue the word NAZI and the real horrible things that real NAZIs did.
The OP postulated simply executing people in prison to solve the problem of having to send them home. That's *ON PAR* with what real Nazis did. I generally agree with your sentiment in much of this stupid nazi stuff especially in the past two years, but you have objectively picked the dumbest example as your hill to die on.
Congrats, everyone now thinks *your* opinion is invalid, actively working against your own cause.
Pick your battles correctly.
Re: (Score:2)
Remember the leftist red herring: "Everyone I disagree with is a NAZI"
My sympathies (Score:2)
to the trafficked people, but the world of today is like a jungle. Anybody who shows a weakness, stupidity, looks like a prey, or isn't at their personal best everytime can be eaten and digested. When you see a job offer too good to be true, it probably isn't true, this is but one among dozens of rules you need to keep in mind.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. A good first approximation is "if t looks to good to be true, it likely is." But many people lack the mind-set needed to understand that and many people lack the education for it. And some are just desperate and (mistakenly) think things cannot get any worse.
With the Internet, the whole world has become a target-rich environment. Oh, and look, some already super-rich assholes push the scams and get even more rich on it.
Failure of the world (Score:2)
Most of these people could easily be sent home, if money was available. They are basically stuck for the lack of a plane ticket and an effective embassy from their home country. We have trillions of dollars to spend on weapons that we will probably never use and cannot come up with a few million to repatriate these victims.
Re: Failure of the world (Score:3)
I can't think of a single reason to steal money from American tax payers to fly Ethiopians home from Myanmar. The world is full of problems, can't pay for them all.
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+1 Sad Reality. I'm sure anyone can donate his own money based on his personal financial situation.
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It is called "humanitarian action". I guess you are just not a humanitarian.
Now, I am not saying this should be done. The same amount of money could do more good used in a different fashion or not being collected, but not being able to think of a single reason marks you as a hardcore evil person.
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As recent history points out, our own bureaucracy of leftists do a better job of stealing from us than a few thousand people in southeast Asia.
Re: (Score:2)
> We spend a lot on weapons and they then get sent overseas for us or our allies to use.
Those were mostly a bunch of old-ass weapons we had sitting in piles for years and years. That shit doesn't keep forever.
> Our inventory is actually pretty depleted because of our allies' demand.
Link to our current inventory?
Re: (Score:2)
> mostly a bunch of old-ass weapons we had sitting in piles
Yeah, it's kind of better than just going to war to use up our weapons. They need to be refreshed at some point regardless.
I'm sure part of it is that we keep signing contracts with defense contractors to build even more, so we have to do something with everything we already have. So some small part of that is waste.
Re: (Score:2)
> We spend a lot on weapons and they then get sent overseas for us or our allies to use
Where are those weapons manufactured and when the US spends on weapons that are produced domestically who is actually getting the check cut to them?
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Yes, because it makes far more sense to pay to dispose of old munitions rather than transfer them to allies that are in a shooting war and need them.
You know these things have a shelf life, right? We were always going to have to spend this money to replenish, after spending even more to safely destroy the old stocks. And it's being spent right here in the USA.
Also, those billions being "funneled to various NGOs" are congressional appropriations that are meant for specific purposes, not some slush fund bul
Re: (Score:2)
> We have trillions of dollars to spend on weapons that we will probably never use ...
Humans: "Hold my beer."
Re: (Score:2)
Even while being detained, didn't the governments take over these scam facilities? Why not use some of them for holding? I bet there was at least some food for the workers there.
Re: (Score:2)
We're cutting off food aid to starving children - where the food is purchased from American farmers - [1]while spending money on propaganda operations flying immigrants to Guantanamo Bay in C-17 cargo aircraft [wsj.com] that can carry multiple helicopters in them at extravagant expense for photos and video.
You're barking up the wrong tree looking for any money from the US government to actually solve problems through foreign aid. They're far too busy spending tax dollars filming B-roll for right-wing agitprop networks.
[1] https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-deportation-flights-paused-cost-c37c577a
Little hope for a fix (Score:3)
> Human rights groups and analysts add that the networks that run these illegal scams will continue to operate unless much broader action is taken against them...
They will continue to operate because even if the governments of Myanmar and Thailand have the political will to solve the problem, rescuing these people would only create a hot potato for them, with nobody willing to pay for the sustenance, let alone repatriation, of the trafficked victims. It seems that China is willing to pay to free its citizens, but it's rather like the exception to the rule. It's no wonder too, because most of these countries are poor.
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The government of Myanmar is fighting a war with just about the entire country. Don't think they are interested in helping.
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> even if the governments of Myanmar and Thailand have the political will to solve the problem, rescuing these people would only create a hot potato for them, with nobody willing to pay for the sustenance, let alone repatriation, of the trafficked victims.
That's the real story here. These people's governments have abandoned them. What good are those governments? Apparently none at all.
Re: (Score:2)
The third world reality. Most of the slashdotters are not from third world countries. We're a privileged bunch in this aspect. We expect that if we find ourselves in a situation like this, abroad, our governments will come to our help. In a normal third world country, possibly in a failed state situation, nobody gives a flying fvck about such things. And even if somebody gives a fvck, there are no resources to help.
Re: (Score:2)
> The third world reality. Most of the slashdotters are not from third world countries. We're a privileged bunch in this aspect. We expect that if we find ourselves in a situation like this, abroad, our governments will come to our help. In a normal third world country, possibly in a failed state situation, nobody gives a flying fvck about such things. And even if somebody gives a fvck, there are no resources to help.
Funnily enough, I actually know a British guy who lived in Yangon and got arrested during the protests a few years back. He called the consulate on a Friday night and was told to call back on Monday. Apparently the "get your citizens out of trouble" service is only offered during business hours.
Re: (Score:1)
Gee, it's hard to imagine a country that's fighting a war with its own citizens. /s [1]https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/05/va-plans-fire-83000-employees-musks-help-eliminating-pact-act-staffing-increase.html [military.com]
[1] https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/05/va-plans-fire-83000-employees-musks-help-eliminating-pact-act-staffing-increase.html
Re: (Score:2)
This is what I can't square in my own mind:
What do you think happens when you piss off enough people that have been trained for war, have an above-the-mean incidence rate of mental health issues, and likely have easy access to firearms?
A valid definition of stupidity: taking action without asking "what happens after that". It's very clear that nobody in Musky's cohort is asking that question, even once. Shit on veterans at your own peril.
This has been getting worse since CoViD. (Score:3)
They lull unsuspecting young people from around asia to some backwater area with promise of a fair paying job to help them and their families, then capture them and take them away to some labor-prison built somewhere on nomansland on the southern chinese border. This is hardcore prison slave-labor and those who manage to escape tell that they either where forced to build Temu-trash for basically no income or forced to scam people which they don't want to do.
The truth is, today we have slaves just as we had 1000 years ago, only more of them because the overall population has grown. The stories I run into about this has me twitching to leave my dayjob, arm myself, find some likeminded people and start violently liberating these people and putting some bullets into the heads of those responsible.
Our cushy life is but one sliver of niceness in a history (and present) of gruesome existence.
Think twice before you buy Temu-junk. If it's too cheap to be true, someone had to pay a _very_ hard price and that likely wasn't some teenager happy to support his family in some doorstep country, these days it's increasingly likely that that someone was a bona-fide enslaved worker.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I happen to think that enslaving somebody is among the most evil acts that can be committed.
Civilization? (Score:1)
Large parts of the world are fundamentally uncivilized. Barbaric cultures, where slavery, rape and murder are normal things. Look at the current slaughter happening in Syria. Much of Africa, much of the Middle East, and some parts of Asia are - by Western standards - barbaric.
The West has thrown literally trillions of dollars of aid into these regions, with little measurable benefit. In the past couple of decades, the West has accepted millions of migrants from these areas. Well meant only: many of those m
U.S. foreign aid funding!?!?!?!?!!!!?!???!?!?! (Score:2)
While I think it's tragic in regards to the slapadash chaos that is the Trump administration's approach to destroying everything that they do not like, I think it's petty and unfair of the article to say "The recent abrupt halt to U.S. foreign aid funding..."
The article describes an issue on the opposite side of the world, and mentions no US citizen involvement, but yet somehow finds the nerve to point at a lack of US funding as contributing to the issue with getting these people home? Keep your pet agenda
Re: (Score:2)
You don't have to believe it (I am not sure I do, would prefer a name on that source) but it does mention:
The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, for example, previously funded care for victims of trafficking in scam compounds in one shelter in Cambodia, but was forced to halt that work by the Trump Administration’s funding freeze announced in January, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation. The halt to funding has also impacted a network of civil soci
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I understand your point. My resistance is more to the topic of why is it a US foreign aid issue to fund relocating Asians in Asia?
I feel bad for these people who have been victimized. But lets see the outrage pointed at the countries not responding to the return of their citizens rather than paint a picture of how this is somehow the USs fault. Why is their help somehow dependent on US aide from a country that already has vastly too much debt? Where is the rest of the world's assistance on this? Shoul
Re: (Score:2)
> Shouldn't that program properly be funded by most countries and the US is just one cup of water in that 5 gallon bucket?
I would say it's because America has far more water available to add to that bucket (we are the wealthiest nation, by a long shot, just look at GDP-per-capita versus those nations, Myanmar in particular is like 10x less)
Now you don't have to agree, I can see you don't, with US doing humanitarian aid but that's really just what the answer is, the US as the global hegemon tends to put it's wealth into efforts like this. Partly because we find it moral to do so when we have the means (we do, I would say) and
Why not use seized funds? (Score:2)
I'm guessing they've seized funds from the scammers. Why not use those funds to arrange to get the victims repatriated?
Crypto enabling crime (again) (Score:3)
Yet another story of criminals leveraging crypto to fleece their victims. And now with a twist....powering the fraud by trafficking people desperate for a job.
Re:Crypto enabling crime (again) (Score:5, Insightful)
No surprise. People with a lack of education tend to wonder why banks, real money and real investments and also legal gambling are so strongly regulated. Crap like this (which has happened in the past in similar forms) is one of the reasons.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget to boycott Target over all those overseas gift card scams.
iTunes too.
Re: Crypto enabling crime (again) (Score:1)
Yes, we've never seen anyone leveraging money to fleece people. We should outlaw money.
Re: (Score:2)
Money has'rbeen a thing for decades, currency on thevother hand...