Phnom Penh17,031 migrants from Bangladesh traveled to Cambodia for promised jobs.
Recruiters trap graduates in debt, then sell them into forced cyber-scam labor abroad.
Middlemen post fake job ads on Facebook and WhatsApp, seize arriving workers’ passports, then sell them to scam compounds.
“Every single promise turns out to be a scam,” said Riaz Ahmed, a migration researcher.
Recruiters keep posting new ads, and each graduate who answers risks the same debt-bondage pipeline.
How each outlet framed it
- Global Voices leans critical
- terms this 'cyber slavery'—UN/Amnesty framing—showing how digital job platforms enable trafficking networks that force victims into remote scamming operations
Sources: Global Voices