Taiwan: According to The Guardian newspaper, according to reports from authorities, hundreds of Taiwanese are reportedly among an untold number of detainees who are being held against their will and in telecommunications fraud networks by human trafficking organizations in Southeast Asia. has been forced to work. ,
Police forces in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Vietnam have launched significant operations to free their citizens and break smuggling rings.
The report claimed that traffickers, many of whom are associated with the famous triad, prey primarily on young Asians via social media by promising well-paying jobs and living in countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. We do. Their passports are often stolen upon arrival, and they are often forced to work for businesses that commit illegal phone or web fraud after being sold to various organizations, it continued.
The countries with the highest group of casualties appear to be Vietnam and Taiwan. More than 5,000 Taiwanese nationals are said to have left for Cambodia and never returned, according to Taiwanese officials. Police said they had identified at least 370 of them as having been caught against their will, despite claims from the victims that there were probably many more.
At least 46 persons have recently returned to Taiwan. Some of them allege that they or others were forced to sign contracts, while others claim they received abuse, rape, denial of food and water, and constant threats. Rescue operations in Cambodia have been interrupted or halted by corrupt officials and ineffective law enforcement. Various accounts claim that Taiwanese, Chinese, Thai and Cambodian individuals are the perpetrators.
Trafficking networks in Asia have been widely covered in recent weeks. A video that went viral last week showed several Vietnamese nationals purportedly running from a casino near the Cambodian border. The group of people fled a building, drowned in a river to swim across the border into Vietnam, but were chased by guards waving sticks. A 16-year-old is accused of drowning while on the run.
A young Taiwanese woman named Yu Tang told the Guardian that she was found among a group of job seekers and that a Taiwanese woman contacted her via Facebook in April. Yu Tang asked the Guardian not to use her last name. He was given the opportunity to work in call or support centers for the online gaming and casino industries.
She said, "I didn't believe him, but then we met in public. Yu Tang commented that the man seemed "normal." When he decided to accept the position, so did many others looking for work. People were waiting for him at the airport.
At Phnom Penh airport, he was once again greeted by people who "professed to be travel pimps but looked like thugs." The operatives took the groups' passports and pretended to need them to arrange for SIM cards, but they never returned them.
Yu Tang insisted that all conversations with the smugglers were erased after the victims were taken to Sihanoukville and informed that they would be involved in a phone scam operation. They were also told that if they wanted to be released, they would have to find more recruits and pay US$17,000 to be released. According to Yu Tang, a man allegedly complained and then was shocked by a stun gun and passed out. He said the man was still unaccounted for in Taiwan.
Yu Tang insisted that after being able to obtain the SIM card, he immediately began researching the smuggling organization. According to the Guardian, she got the contact information of a local politician's office and sent them a message on Facebook.
The next day the army and police officers arrived to pick him up. The boss reportedly offered to pay him to "pretend to be nothing", but he reportedly declined. After that she went back to Taiwan.
Yu Tang insisted that he detained at least 50 other Taiwanese in the office where he was taken, and that the neighborhood was full of buildings similar to him, leading him to believe that Cambodia has more Taiwan than More Taiwanese are still stranded. Officials speculate. According to him, many people were forced to sign paperwork that would be shown to any officer who inquired about their status, and as the period of detention got longer, people voiced their concerns. He was hesitant to express.
Yu Tang claims that since his return to Taiwan, victims' families and potential victims have frequently contacted him and asked him to help him escape, with police contacting him looking for insider information. . Yu claimed to have helped eight people return to Taiwan so far.
Taiwanese police claimed to have detained at least 67 people in connection with the smuggling gang, 16 of whom were linked to local gangs on Monday. Cambodia's Interior Minister Sir Kheng announced on Friday that his department Statewide investigation of the legal status of foreigners working or living in hotels, rental homes and casinos.
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