By Alec Go
The Philippine Embassy in Jakarta warned Filipinos in Indonesia to be wary of illegal recruitment schemes amid the rising number of workers victimized by syndicates in Southeast Asian countries.
In a Feb. 24 advisory, the embassy noted that illegally recruited Filipinos from the Philippines and in other countries by Southeast Asian-based criminal syndicates are made to “commit cybercrimes.”
The bogus jobs being offered to victims include “Customer Service Representatives” or “Call Center Agents” in Southeast Asian countries.
“Once they are recruited, the Filipino victims are issued tickets to fly to a Southeast Asian country, from which they are taken to adjacent countries and brought to remote areas,” it stated.
“They are then forced to work as online scammers engaged in cryptocurrency and other online scams,” it noted.
The embassy said trafficked victims are physically and psychologically abused by the syndicates, and were also “made to work long hours under difficult work conditions.”
They also suffer from non-payment of wages, while their passports and gadgets were confiscated.
Some were also “held hostage and made to pay exorbitant amounts of money should they wish to leave,” while some were also threatened with “death or cutting off their hands if they do not cooperate.”
There were also victims who were sold to other syndicates who may also fall victims of slavery, including sexual slavery.
“The Embassy reiterates its warning to the public to be wary of these criminal syndicates promising employment in mainland Southeast Asia,” the embassy said. – gb
