These scam centers are run by criminal organizations and staffed by basically slaves. They're often tricked into coming, many from outside the country the center is located in, by false promises of legitimate employment, only to wind up imprisoned in the compound where they're forced to conduct scam operations under threat of beatings, torture, even death. It's a pretty horrible state of affairs.
In 2022 42 Vietnamese workers fleeing human trafficking were captured on video as they escaped from a clandestine call center in a Cambodian casino, where they were being held against their will, and crossed the neighbouring river on foot, which separates Cambodia from Vietnam: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/casino-workers-082...
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/27/1113782/scam-com...
These scam centers are run by criminal organizations and staffed by basically slaves. They're often tricked into coming, many from outside the country the center is located in, by false promises of legitimate employment, only to wind up imprisoned in the compound where they're forced to conduct scam operations under threat of beatings, torture, even death. It's a pretty horrible state of affairs.