KUALA LUMPUR (June 20): The trafficking of humans through casinos across Asia is a growing concern, according to the US Department of State (DOS).

In the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report released on June 16, DOS said the practice was particularly prevalent in Special Economic Zones and border towns such as Sihanoukville in Cambodia and the infamous “Golden Triangle”.

The report also named Burma, Cambodia and Macau among Asian jurisdictions ranked Tier 3 (from a total of four tiers), described as “Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so”.

DOS said that some traffickers had taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic by leveraging pandemic-related economic hardships, increased global youth unemployment and international travel restrictions to exploit thousands, adding that forced criminality in cyber scam operations had emerged as a trend that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry over the last two years — often using casinos and other shell companies as cover.

The report highlighted that casinos and shell companies operating in unused hotels and other rented and bespoke commercial spaces have become hotspots for this growing criminal activity — especially within remote special economic zones, border towns and other jurisdictionally complex geographic areas known for human rights impunity and minimal law enforcement penetration.

“Fearing significant downturns in revenue stemming from pandemic-related restrictions, and witnessing widespread unemployment during the pandemic, traffickers in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Ghana, and Türkiye — including some with connections to the People’s Republic of China — saw an opportunity [and] used fake job listings to recruit adults and children from dozens of countries,” it said.

The DOS noted that some nations have begun to mobilise resources and strategies to locate citizens, remove them from their exploitative circumstances, and even initiate accountability processes.

These include Taiwan, which in 2022 located and repatriated hundreds of individuals from cyber scam operations in Cambodia and indicted dozens of Taiwanese individuals allegedly complicit in their initial recruitment.

The number of people trafficked across the world each year numbers in the millions.