27-6-2023 (MANILA) Over 1,000 people who were allegedly trafficked into the Philippines to work for an online casino in Queensland have been rescued by the Philippine police. The victims consisted of Chinese, Vietnamese, Singaporean, and Malaysian nationals, and were found during a police raid on a compound in the capital on Monday evening. The victims had reportedly accepted jobs advertised on Facebook offering work as “assistants in online gaming”.
There is growing international concern over internet scams in the Asia-Pacific region, which are often staffed by trafficking victims who are deceived or coerced into promoting fraudulent crypto investments. AFP journalists who were present at the scene saw two police buses and two police trucks parked outside the compound, but were not permitted to enter the buildings.
Michelle Sabino, a spokeswoman for the Philippine National Police’s anti-cybercrime group, stated that “this is initially a case of human trafficking,” and that the investigation will be expanded to include whether the workers were involved in online rackets. In May, authorities rescued more than a thousand people from various Asian countries who had been trafficked into the Philippines and forced to run online scams.
