Thousands of Indonesians have been forced to work for online scam operations in nearby Southeast Asian countries after moving there for what they thought were better jobs. But rescuing these workers from international forced labor is a task that has numerous challenges.
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00:00When this Indonesian fruit seller signed up for an IT position in Cambodia,
00:04he was looking for a better job.
00:06Instead, things got much worse.
00:09He was forced to work as an online scammer for 14 hours a day
00:13in a compound surrounded by armed guards.
00:30He's not the only one.
00:43Over the last few years, thousands of Indonesians have moved to nearby Southeast Asian countries
00:48in the hopes of finding better jobs,
00:50only to find themselves forced to work for international scam operations.
00:55Similar scams have happened to citizens of other Asian countries,
00:58including an estimated thousands of Taiwanese people trapped in Cambodia
01:01and other countries in the region,
01:03though Taipei has said these cases declined after the issue came to light.
01:07One activist, who works for an NGO focused on the rights of Indonesian migrant workers,
01:12says part of the problem is a lack of opportunities back home.
01:28Over the past few years, Indonesia has brought over 4,500 of its citizens back from nearby countries
01:46where they were working for scam operations.
01:49But there are still more who have not been rescued,
01:51including at least 90 in Myanmar, according to an Indonesian government official.
01:55But the official says in order to rescue them,
01:58Indonesia has to rely on authorities in the countries where they are trapped.
02:22The official also warns that some Indonesians may not be victims,
02:26but willing participants in online scamming,
02:28complicating this problem that involves Indonesians in countries all across Southeast Asia.
02:34Hank Hsu and Keynes Koranta for Taiwan Plus.