Transnational organized crime syndicates based in Southeast Asia are fueling trafficking for forced criminality and sexual exploitation and abuse in ‘scam farms’ that have proliferated across the region.

In these huge operations, people are not allowed to leave. The scam farms have dormitories and cafeterias, but also a barber shop, medical clinic, massage spa, gambling room as well as a VIP karaoke bar for senior managers, where they could drink, sing and socialize in private rooms.

The Philippines Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) has raided and shut down dozens of such operations in recent years and is collaborating with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to look at ways of working with other countries to disrupt and dismantle the scam farms in Southeast Asia countries including the Philippines, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand.

In this photo, raided scam farm in the Filipino capital, Manila.