In contrast to the enterprising plans of CraigTPE, other folks from Taiwan have been getting less positive outcomes in taking jobs in Cambodia. 
Guy
3 Likes
More details in this story, which recounts some testimony of one of these workers from Taiwan:
A rescued victim identified only by her nickname Pipi (皮皮) also showed up at the legislators’ news conference to share her experience of working in Cambodia.
Pipi said that a friend got her a high-paying job in Cambodia but when she got there, she was imprisoned in a fully-fenced industrial park.
In seven days, she was resold four times, Pipi said, adding that fortunately, she was able to escape the park after getting help from a local Cambodian provincial governor and chief secretary through an anti-fraud organization, according to Pipi.
Pipi pointed out that some Taiwanese did escape from the park by jumping off a building but had suffered leg injuries in the process.
Some Taiwanese being held were also beaten by fraud rings, which had also bribed the local police so it was useless to call the police, according to Pipi.
Source: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202208110015
Guy
6 Likes
That’s a weird story. Why traffic Taiwanese when Cambodians are so easily available?
1 Like
Here’s an expose by Al Jazeera on the subject.
Do your homework. Never take a job where you have to surrender your passport. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
10 Likes
Asia Adventures wasn’t what you expected?
Sino-operated fraud, use of Mandarin and not Khmer is my guess.
Guy
4 Likes
Slavery of Taiwanese in Cambodia…
“Taipei estimates between 2,000 and 5,000 remain human trafficking victims are in Cambodia”
Khmer Times August 16, 2022
2 Likes
This just proves that money is more important than human lives in the culture. Even the lives of their own kin and creed.
This is crazy and awful, I just wonder how in educated Taiwan so many people get trapped like this and some sold as a slave. The news is scarring many from going to SE Asia just as a tourist. It’s also bad news so many people are so submissive and not fight for your rights.
The news in Taiwan media is awful, seems 5,000+ young people some sold and bought like livestock. (Seems old farmer may treat the family ox better). It’s making many Taiwanese afraid to even travel that area. Also not sure its “Sino” run.
Also not sure its “Sino” run.
It is. See Al Jazeera video link above.
Given the massive amount of PRC investment in Cambodia (including casinos, construction, etc) I still think my hunch is correct—almost certainly in collaboration with unscrupulous Taiwanese.
Guy
So still based in Siem Reap? In any case, I hope things are going well!
Guy
Most of the victims are duped with promises of easy work and big money. They don’t know what they are getting into…
Since 2018 and before this was becoming a growing problem in Cambodia. At that time several “compounds” consisting of cheap block flats popped up crammed with online gambling operations and VOIP scammers whose modus operandi was to fool people, mostly living in China or Malaysia, etc, to deposit their money in the “police prosecutor’s account” for safe-keeping because the victim’s bank data, they pretend, has been compromised…
At first, most of the gangs running these scams came from the PRC or Malaysia. A lot of them were shutdown in 2019 when the government revoked foreign online gambling licenses. Others, the VOIP scammers, were rounded up and deported…
But others continue to open new secret operations in heavily guarded compounds. The victim employees cannot leave, they are held hostage by the ringleaders and forced to work. If they rebel, they are beaten the sold to another gang.
Some operations are less onerous, and the workers are there more voluntarily because they knew what they were getting into.
Many nationalities are involved now with these illicit businesses. The online gambling continues on a smaller scale along with the scams… There are Chinese, Vietnamese, Thais, Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Taiwanese, Malaysians and others working in Cambodia. Many are willing but many are dupes and slaves.
This has been widely reported in the media, and this year the U.S. downgraded Cambodia’s human trafficking status.
Indeed, EVA air flights arrive everyday from Taipei… Just better come for a holiday rather than to take up a job offer that sounds too good to be true…
2 Likes
Ayup, and ayup. Thanks. 
5 Likes
I should add, one reason maybe the Cambodians got downgraded for human trafficking is maybe because the police are more focused on the rampant drug trade… And A LOT of the guys getting caught are either Chinese or Taiwanese. They are here because they (think they) can manufacture Meth or Ket and export huge quantities back to China and Taiwan.
Here is an example from July… Chinese guys built an entire big factory to make drugs for export back to China… Taiwanese gangs are doing the same type of thing, too…
1 Like
My question is how an underage kid was trafficked. I mean, who the hell approved having him there alone?!?! And why no one came looking for him?!
The office shared the story of a 17-year-old boy whom it said had been lured to the Cambodian city of Sihanoukville in April, but had managed to escape his captors and recently returned to Taiwan.
According to the office, upon arrival in Cambodia, the young man’s passport was confiscated by his “company,” which forced him to use messaging apps to recruit people for fraudulent investment schemes.
If an employee refused to work or performed poorly, managers would punish them with beatings or even electric shocks from a taser, the office said.
After being transferred several times to other organizations in Cambodia, the boy was “sold” to a group in Myanmar, the office said. While being driven through Thailand on the way to that country, it said, the boy and a friend were able to flee, and with assistance from an international NGO, he was able to get in contact with Taiwan’s representative office
1 Like
A Taiwanese woman suspected of recruiting other Taiwanese to send to Cambodia has been arrested in central Taiwan.
Guy
2 Likes
Jesus. Not even a little surprising though, unfortunately.