Trafficking victims detained, sleeping on streets and stranded in Cambodia
Mekong Independent | Lured from Lesotho to Cambodia for the promise of a job in a casino, Kenzo instead found himself trafficked to a scam compound. There, he was forced to meet performance goals under threat of torture.
Once released, he had nowhere to go and no money for a plane ticket to get home. After months on the street, he and others who had escaped compounds slept outside the gates of the Caritas NGO in the Kandal Province. Trafficking victims say the conditions are worsening and becoming more dangerous.
After five days, they were detained and questioned by Kandal police. The police chief confirmed the detention of 18 African people. The NGO told the police that the people didn’t have enough documents and hadn’t been referred by another person.
A week later, some of those detained sent their location to the Mekong Independent. According to the ping, they were now being held in Mango 2, a former scam compound that has been converted to an immigration detention center.
Unacceptable Conditions for Trafficking Escapees
Ling Li, a cofounder at the nonprofit EOS Collective, which provides aid to trafficked scam workers, says people in the center have reported that the conditions were unhygienic and people were not given sufficient food and water.
“It’s unacceptable that the Cambodian government changed the Mango 2 scam compound into an immigration detention center, and some of the people were trapped before in Mango 2, so it’s definitely retraumatizing.” — Ling Li, EOS Collective
Using a group chat, people held in Mango 2 told the Mekong Independent that they received free water at specific times and had to order and pay for food beyond a daily ration of rice and a small piece of chicken.
Another trafficking victim from Ghana had a similar story. He, too, had been directed to the Caritas shelter, where he waited and was then arrested after five days. He, too, had come to Cambodia with the promise of a teaching job he found on TikTok. The company hiring him paid for his flight. Instead, he was trafficked to a compound called Park 8.
According to Li, neither workers nor embassies have reliable ways to get plane tickets for people to travel home.
A Kenyan woman who was recruited for a call-center job, was forced to perform scam tasks in a casino, but escaped during the January raids. The tourist visa her recruited arranged had expired, and she had been living in crowded guesthouses. Her cousin, also recruited to Cambodia, was also trying to get home. She tried working in another scam compound that was still recruiting, but received no money and left after another raid.
The Cambodian government has waived visa overstay fees for escaped scam workers, but it’s not clear how long that relief will last. If they reinstate them, victims will face another fee they can’t afford.
One of the problems is that the government isn’t screening people to identify them as victims of trafficking. Because they’re not identified as victims, it’s harder for their home countries to help them and for organizations to support them.
Full article: Africans detained, sleeping on streets after months stranded in Cambodia
