The trafficking landscape in Southeast Asia has changed. The Telegraph reports on what they call a ‘scamdemic’ where men and boys are increasingly being targeted and forced to scam people around the world in troll factories.

Changes in Southeast Asia’s trafficking

According to the Vietnamese anti-trafficking NGO Blue Dragon, women and girls made up a vast majority of trafficking victims in the region before the pandemic. Before 2020, more than 90% of the women were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and often sold into prostitution in China. But with the economic devastation that came with COVID-19 and a newly built fence along the border between Vietnam and China, the proportion of male victims rose to 40% by 2022.

“The scam centres came out of the blue, nobody really expected it, and they’ve completely changed the landscape and the response. It’s not that women are no longer being trafficked, it’s just that the number of men has surged as labour exploitation has increased. Overall, there’s just been this really massive increase in human trafficking, and it’s driven by these scam centres.” – Dr Caitlin Wyndham, Head of Research and Learning at Blue Dragon

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