By Michael Brosowski, Founder of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation –
Human trafficking and slavery continue to take new forms, constantly staying a step ahead of efforts to keep people safe.
Right now, Southeast Asia is in the midst of a crisis of human trafficking. The United Nations estimated in August 2023 that 220,000 people are in slavery in ‘scam centers’ in two countries alone: Cambodia and Myanmar. Victims of trafficking into these centers are forced, under threat of serious violence, to trick people around the globe into sending money – for fake crypto schemes, or fake romances, or fake business opportunities.
Four years ago, the concept of a ‘scam center’ was unheard of.
Increased calls for help
Blue Dragon is well known for our rescue operations. Since we began, we’ve rescued more than 1500 people from various forms of slavery.
In recent years, calls for help from people in slavery have been growing, both in number and in urgency.
How significant is the change? In the second half of 2023, we rescued 7 times the number of people we rescued in the first half. Looking ahead to the coming months, those numbers are still growing. And by far, most of our rescues are of people in scam centers.
Increased brutality
Apart from the numbers, the urgency of every call is beyond what we’ve seen before. Messages are coming to us along the lines of:
“Please help my sister, she is in Myanmar and the trafficker plans to take her kidneys.”
“I am desperate. All night I hear bombs and gunfire. I don’t want to keep living.”
“Send help, please! We are being tortured. They used an electric prod on me and now I cannot walk.”
Trafficking in all its forms is horrible, but these new levels of barbarism are shocking nonetheless.
Reasons for hope
When talking about human trafficking, I’m always careful of two things. First, I never exaggerate how bad things are. This includes sharing rumours or speculating. And second, I never give false hope when there’s really none to be had.
But despite all of these developments, I do believe there’s still hope. There’s light at the end of this tunnel.
Life is getting harder for the traffickers who are luring people into Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, where they are violently enslaved and forced to scam people online.
People are hearing about their tricks and are less likely to fall for them.
And international pressure is causing some of these scam operations to close. Police from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos have been pursuing the criminals behind the trafficking and scams, reportedly arresting thousands of people involved.
Also helping the cause is that rebel armies in northern Myanmar have sworn to shut the scams down as they take control of new territory.
Although the situation right now is worse than it’s ever been, we’re seeing signs that maybe, just maybe, the tide is starting to turn.
I hope I’m not speaking too soon. But it’s definitely too soon to give up hope.
Blue Dragon’s most recent analysis of human trafficking can be read here.
- This post is adapted from the Life Is A Long Story blog post, Where Are We Now?
- The cover image shows a rescue operation involving an overland journey.
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