Keypoints:
- Fake overseas jobs lure African workers
- Victims are forced to conduct online fraud
- IOM urges victim protection, not punishment
AFRICAN jobseekers from Kenya and Ethiopia are among thousands of people trafficked into heavily guarded compounds in Asia and forced to carry out online fraud, according to a warning from the UN migration agency.
The alert exposes a fast-expanding form of human trafficking in which educated, English-speaking workers are recruited through convincing overseas job adverts, stripped of their documents and coerced into criminal activity. It also challenges governments to screen those found inside scam compounds for trafficking indicators before treating them as willing offenders.
Fake jobs become trafficking traps
The International Organisation for Migration said criminal networks commonly approach potential recruits through social media, offering apparently legitimate work abroad.
The Associated Press reported from Geneva that victims are often recruited because they speak English fluently and may have university-level education, making them valuable to fraud networks targeting people around the world.
After travelling, victims may be locked inside compounds, placed under constant surveillance and prevented from leaving. Passports and telephones are confiscated, while violence, threats and debt bondage are used to force compliance.
Survivors have reported torture, sexual abuse, starvation and solitary confinement, the IOM said in its July 28, 2026 warning, issued ahead of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30.
Amy Pope, the agency’s director general, said the number of cases was rising and that victims from more than 80 countries had been drawn into scam operations.
Kenya and Ethiopia among most affected
Between 2022 and 2025, the IOM assisted more than 3,500 victims of trafficking for forced criminality in South-East Asia.
They came from 39 countries, with the largest numbers originating from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya and Bangladesh.
The figures give the warning a direct African dimension. In February 2026, more than 600 Kenyans rescued from suspected scam compounds in Cambodia petitioned Kenya’s High Court for government assistance to return home.
They alleged that legitimate employment offers had led them into confinement, violence and gruelling shifts conducting online scams.
Similar methods are already visible within Africa. Ghanaian police rescued 57 Nigerians who were allegedly trafficked to Accra and forced into cyber-enabled romance scams.
In another case, police in Cote d’Ivoire freed 33 West Africans lured by promises of jobs in Canada before being coerced into online fraud.
Victims forced to commit fraud
The scam-centre model blurs the line between victim and offender. People seen operating fake investment platforms, romance schemes or fraudulent online shops may themselves be working under threat of assault, resale to another compound or punishment for missing daily targets.
‘They deserve protection, not punishment,’ Pope said, urging governments to identify signs of trafficking before bringing criminal charges against rescued workers.
The principle means a trafficked person should not be punished for unlawful acts they were compelled to commit as a direct consequence of exploitation.
Without proper screening, survivors can emerge from captivity only to face detention, stigma or prosecution at home. Many also return without identity documents or money and with debts owed to relatives who financed their journey.
Scam-centre model expands in Africa
The financial scale is enormous. The IOM, citing UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates, said scam offences across East and South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand caused losses of between $88.3bn and $114.1bn in 2025.
A 2026 UNODC background paper cites research suggesting that at least 300,000 people are being held in scam centres.
It says scam-centre operations are increasingly being replicated beyond South-East Asia, including in East, West and Southern Africa.
The expansion demonstrates how trafficking, online fraud, money laundering and digital payment systems are becoming interconnected parts of a criminal business model that often operates across several jurisdictions.
That makes investigations difficult for agencies working within national borders, particularly when recruiters, victims, scam operators and financial intermediaries are located in different countries.
Governments face a protection test
African governments now face two connected tasks: preventing deceptive recruitment and protecting citizens after their rescue.
Labour ministries and embassies need faster systems for verifying overseas vacancies, licensing recruitment agencies and flagging suspicious adverts promising unusually high salaries.
Police and immigration officers also require training to distinguish trafficked workers from the organisers, guards, recruiters and financiers controlling scam compounds.
Consular support cannot end when a compound is raided. Safe repatriation, counselling, legal assistance and reintegration support are essential if survivors are to rebuild their lives without being exploited again.
The IOM has launched a 2026–2030 strategy for Asia and the Pacific centred on prevention, victim protection, cross-border cooperation and the disruption of trafficking networks.
Its warning is clear: dismantling scam compounds will require governments, technology companies, financial institutions and law-enforcement agencies to follow the recruiters, money and digital infrastructure keeping the industry alive.
