A growing number of South Africans are appealing for help to return home after being trafficked to Southeast Asia under the guise of lucrative job offers.
Many of them have ended up imprisoned in cyber-scam compounds, where they are forced to run online fraud schemes targeting people across the world.
According to the non-governmental organisation Brave To Love, the victims were recruited through social media and online adverts promising well-paid positions in Thailand.
However, after arriving in the country, they were smuggled across the border into Myanmar, where they are held in tightly guarded compounds controlled by criminal syndicates.
Inside these facilities, the victims reportedly live in overcrowded dormitories with minimal food and water. They are subjected to long working hours, sometimes up to 20 hours a day, and face harsh punishment, including beatings and fines, if they fail to meet performance targets.
Once trapped, many are forced to carry out online romance scams, pretending to form relationships with victims abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States in order to extort money.
Byron Mann, director of Brave To Love, described the conditions as a form of modern slavery, adding that several South Africans remain stranded in Myanmar’s regions notorious for human trafficking and cybercrime.
Human rights organisations have warned that thousands of people across Africa and Asia have been ensnared in what has become known as “cyberslavery”, a new form of exploitation where individuals are coerced into operating online scams under threats of violence. Victims who resist are frequently beaten, deprived of food, or sold to other syndicates.
Experts believe that South Africa’s high unemployment rate and increasing cost of living are making young people especially vulnerable to such recruitment schemes.
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