"‘I couldn’t escape’: the people trafficked into call centres and forced to scam Australians", 2 April 2023

Before the pandemic hit, Rahim worked as a boat operator transporting essential items between the islands of Indonesia. The casual job was enough to keep his wife and two children financially stable – until the borders closed, the tourists packed up and the work ran dry.

As the months dragged on, Rahim – who is using a pseudonym for privacy reasons – became desperate for a job. So when an acquaintance on his island offered him work in Cambodia, he took it.

But the job wasn’t what he expected. He found himself held captive in a call centre, forced to scam foreigners, including Australians, out of thousands of dollars.

A few weeks ago, three people were sentenced to jail on the Indonesian island of Batam for trafficking Rahim into the job. The three traffickers, who worked from Batam city, sending workers abroad illegally, were sentenced to jail terms of between three and four years.

… When Rahim was recruited, he was told the job was to market cryptocurrency over platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok, build a relationship with the buyer and encourage them to buy as much as possible…

After Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN special rapporteur, visited the country for 11 days on a special mission, he said thousands of people had been trafficked into the country to work as scammers…

… Steve Baird, IJM Australia’s chief executive officer, says the prosecution of the three Indonesian nationals this month sends a strong message…