Philippines
Police arrest more than 2,700 people in raid on human traffickers
Police forces in the capital of the Philippines, Manila
© Xinhua / Imago Images
Philippines authorities have made numerous arrests in a crackdown on human traffickers. Their victims are said to have been forced to work at an online casino.
According to Cybercrime Division spokeswoman Michelle Sabino, police are trying to determine who of the 2,724 arrested are the victims and who are suspects. More than 1,500 of those arrested were from the Philippines. The operation is the largest human trafficking raid in the Philippines to date, Sabino said. More than a thousand people are said to have been freed.
Philippines: Victims lured via Facebook ads
According to Sabino, the alleged victims had reported on job advertisements on the online service Facebook, in which “assistants for online gambling” were sought. They were then forced to work more than 12 hours a day for less than 24,000 Philippine pesos (around 400 euros) a month. In addition, they should not have left the building.
The Asia-Pacific region is home to numerous companies involved in internet fraud and hiring victims of people smuggling. In May, Philippine authorities freed more than a thousand people who had been trafficked to the Philippines from several Asian countries, held captive and forced to engage in online fraud.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said victims are often recruited with the prospect of “better, high-paying jobs with enticing benefits.” They would then be isolated from their communities and trapped without passports in the world of exploitation, said IOM Asia-Pacific spokesman Itayi Viriri. The victims are basically hostages of the human traffickers and need to be freed by outside intervention, he emphasized.