“They took off my clothes, put me in a chair and put an electric shock on my leg. I thought it was the end of my life.” Ravi A Sri Lankan, who does not want to reveal his identity, said this to the BBC.
After going to Thailand to work in the information technology field and being a victim of human trafficking after suffering for a long time in Myanmar, he was saved from the beginning to reveal his story.
According to him, he was sold to one of a number of camps run by Chinese-speaking gangs running online scams. They employ people like Ravi who are trafficked, posing as women using fake online identities and working long hours to trick single men in America and Europe.
By promising quick returns, they entice targeted individuals to invest large sums of money in fake online trading platforms.
Ravi’s “cyber slave” camp is in the jungles of Myawaddy, an area not under the direct control of Myanmar’s military government.
According to the Interpol, thousands of young men and women from Asia, East Africa, South America and Western Europe are lured into these cyber crime camps with the promise of computer-related jobs.
Those who refuse to comply are beaten, tortured or sexually assaulted.
“I had to stay in a small cell for 16 days because I didn’t obey them. They only gave me water mixed with cigarettes and ashes to drink,” Ravi told the BBC.
“On the fifth or sixth day, when I was in the cell, two girls were brought to another cell nearby. They were raped by 17 men right in front of my eyes,” he said.
“One of the girls is Filipino. I can’t tell what country the other one is from.”
In August 2023, the United Nations estimated that over 120,000 people in Myanmar and another 100,000 in Cambodia had been forced to work for these and other online scams, from illegal gambling to cryptocurrency scams.
It is reported that young men and women are imprisoned in many countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.