A victim of a Chinese scamming gang shows a scar on his leg after he was tortured

Some, like 34-year-old Lu, have made it out, though thousands of others are feared still trapped.
In August, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Vitit Muntarbhorn, said the trafficking victims "were experiencing a living hell often resulting in torture and even death".
- Metal bars and barbed wire -
Sihanoukville was once a sleepy resort town, but it was transformed by a vast influx of Chinese investment.
Dozens of casinos sprang up in recent years, making it a hub for Chinese gamblers and drawing in international crime groups.
As travel restrictions bit during the pandemic, these groups shifted their focus.





The Binh Di River that Vietnamese forced labour workers swam across in August after escaping a scamming gang based in a casino in Kandal province in Cambodia

There, he was taken to a complex of apartment blocks a dozen or so storeys tall, housing a mix of accommodation and office rooms.
"It just looked like a normal office, with three rows of tables with monitors and keyboards, just like a cybercafe," Roy told AFP.
But he said "once you get in you know you're not doing customer service".
Roy and others like him had their passports taken away, and were instructed to set up fake profiles on apps and dating sites including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Under the constant threat of violence, they would groom targets to pour money into crypto currency or other investment platforms.
Others were forced to build online "love" relationships with their targets and to scam them under the guise of needing help to pay debts off.
There are no reliable figures on how much money the gangs have netted from the scams, though the UN's Douglas said the numbers are "staggering".
It is not clear where the money ends up, he added, though criminal proceeds are often bundled together with online betting profits, with many of the scam compounds located near legal gambling businesses.
The gang member in Sihanoukville told AFP he did not know who he was ultimately working for.
"We don't know who is who," he said.

"They are the real mafia."
- 'Shock, kick, shock' -
Forced scammers who resisted paid a high price. Construction worker Lu said he was "beaten quite often" because he was caught trying to escape.




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Buffalos walk in a field in front of the empty buildings of in the Chinatown district in Sihanoukville

Others said gang members used electric batons to inflict shocks, or forced workers into rooms too small to stand in, depriving them of water, 1win comment utiliser le bonus sport food and light for hours.
"They ask someone to lie down and then kick them, like a dog," Roy said.
"Sometimes (they would) get an electric shock, kick and shock. They would get a five-minute to 10-minute beating."
Some, like Roy, were fortunate.
After being told he would have to buy his way out for $20,000, he was rescued after contacting Taiwanese victims group the Global Anti-Trafficking Organisation (GASO).
The group works with Cambodian officials to facilitate rescues and repatriate citizens.
Others have taken a more dramatic approach -- in August dozens of Vietnamese workers escaped a casino in southern Kandal province and swam across a river back to their homeland.
Attention on the issue has grown: in July the United States downgraded Cambodia in its annual human trafficking report.
After months of official denials, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered a hunt for ringleaders and authorities launched a string of high-profile raids in August.
In September, police freed more than 1,000 foreigners from three Sihanoukville compounds.
At one site, a swoop netted nearly 9,000 mobile phones, 800 computers -- and chillingly, handcuffs and electric shock instruments.
It was during one such raid that Lu was released.
- Crackdown or relocation? -
Still, international observers and rights groups are sceptical of the depth of the government's crackdown.
Jacob Sims, International Justice Mission's Cambodia director, said the efforts need to go further than raids and rescues.
"Criminal accountability for the ringleaders of the transnational organised crime networks is absolutely essential if we hope to eradicate this issue," he said.
There are fears that rather than shutting down, the groups are simply relocating.
"Today it is an operation in Cambodia, but tomorrow a gang under pressure uproots and shifts to Myanmar, Laos or the Philippines -- and this has happened," the UN's Douglas said.
Back in Cambodia, those rescued by police, like Lu, face an uncertain future.
While he has evaded immigration detention, he told AFP he cannot afford to return to his wife and nine-year-old child in China.
A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry told AFP the government was working with Cambodia and other countries to fight transnational crime, and that it "resolutely upholds both the safety and legal rights and privileges of Chinese citizens abroad".
Lu said he had received no help from the Chinese embassy.
"The Chinese embassy only has one thing to say: 'Adults have to pay for their decisions,'" he said.
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