The European Union yesterday announced a fresh tranche of sanctions aimed at the operators of Southeast Asia-based online scamming operations, who they said are responsible for “serious human rights violations.”
In a statement, the European Council stated that it was imposing “restrictive measures” against seven persons and three entities in Cambodia and Myanmar, accusing them of “human trafficking, torture, and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments,” as well as billions of dollars in fraud.
The sanctions, which involve asset freezes and travel bans for the designated individuals and entities, are the latest response to the scamming industry that has entrenched itself across mainland Southeast Asia since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in loosely regulated parts of Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. Coordinated predominantly by Chinese organized crime syndicates, these industrial-scale scam operations run romance-investment and crypto scams on victims who target victims across the globe.
In addition to victimizing those on the receiving end of the scams, these rely on a large indentured workforce – mostly ordinary people who have been “trafficked or lured under false pretenses [and] held against their will,” the European Council said. Inside scam centers, victims have reported being confined in cell-like rooms, as well as subjected to beatings, mistreatment, and torture.
