ADDIS ABABA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- African experts have expressed alarm over worsening trafficking in persons for forced labor and criminal activities in scam compounds across Southeast Asia.
The concerns were raised on Wednesday on the sidelines of a consultative forum on trafficking in persons for forced criminality in Southeast Asia, held at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
Maemo Machethe, director of the AU's Continental Operational Center for Combating Irregular Migration, said trafficking in persons for forced criminality has become a global human rights crisis, with increasing numbers of African migrants falling prey to transnational organized criminal networks.
"The situation requires our continental and global response. Trafficking in persons for forced criminality is not just exploitation but a serious violation of human rights, which sometimes ends in the death of victims who are kept and isolated in inhumane scam compounds," Machethe told Xinhua.
Noting that the situation requires collective efforts, Machethe said the growing sophistication of trafficking for forced criminality remains a major challenge for existing criminal justice systems, particularly law enforcement agencies.
Churchill Monono, chair of the Permanent Representatives' Subcommittee on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons at the AU, said trafficking for forced criminality, including online fraud, is increasingly involving African citizens lured by false promises of legitimate employment abroad.
"It is sad to note that the majority of the African citizens in their quest to seek better livelihood opportunities end up being transported to unknown destinations and held under threat or violence, forced to participate in online scams, illegal financial schemes, and other forms of organized crimes," Monono said, emphasizing the urgency of addressing the scourge before it escalates further.
"We need to stop the spread of illegal and criminal networks of these traffickers within our borders through enhanced intelligence sharing, cross-border collaboration and further enhanced information sharing among member states," said Monono, who also advocated establishing a collaborative framework with counterparts in Southeast Asia.
Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, said victims are deceived and fraudulently recruited from around the world and held in facilities in some Southeast Asian countries.
"These are massive webs of structures that are set up specifically for online scamming to take place. So all across these places, you have these giant operations that are scamming people all over the globe. Every single day, they steal hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars from people from over 100 countries," Tower said. ■
