The Ugandan Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that 22 Ugandans are currently held captive in Myanmar after being trafficked for forced labor.
According to the ministry, efforts are underway to rescue these individuals, comprising 17 men and five women, who were initially recruited by “local leaders” from the suburbs of Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
These victims, estimated to be between 22 and 30 years old, believed they were securing employment in supermarkets in Thailand and engaging in casual or domestic work.
However, upon their arrival in Thailand, they were intercepted by local contacts and transported across the border to Myanmar via road.
Derrick Basalirwa Kigenyi, Uganda’s deputy national coordinator for the prevention of human trafficking told the BBC Focus on Africa podcast: “They are kept there for labour exploitation – mainly doing online illegal activities like hacking into systems to defraud people from all over the world. I think this is to financially benefit maybe the cartels there.
Kigenyi highlighted the repercussions faced by those who resist, citing instances of torture. He warned against attempting escape, cautioning that it could potentially result in loss of life.
Interpol has received reports from Ugandan law enforcement indicating that several citizens were initially taken to Dubai under the guise of employment, later redirected to Thailand, and subsequently transported to Myanmar.
In an earlier report this year, the UN Human Rights Office disclosed widespread exploitation of hundreds of thousands of individuals coerced by organized criminal networks into online romance scams, illegal gambling, and cryptocurrency fraud across Southeast Asia.
Pia Oberoi, senior advisor on migration and human rights at the UN Human Rights Office (Asia Pacific), expressed challenges faced in rescuing individuals from these fraudulent compounds, citing limited consular presence in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar for various countries.
Oberoi emphasized the difficulty in identifying channels to rescue individuals from these distressing situations.
