The news of Taiwanese people being scammed in Cambodia continues to spread in Taiwan, and public opinion on this topic is divided. In addition to continuously paying attention to how the government and civil groups assist the victims to return to Taiwan, people have also started to criticize the Taiwanese who work in that country for not being vigilant enough, and even questioned whether those involved in fraud are "worthy" of the community's extensive efforts to help.
The head of the International Criminal Police Division of Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, Li Yongji, told Taiwanese media that there are three types of Taiwanese going to Cambodia: "those who are deceived into human trafficking, those who know they are going to commit crimes, and ordinary working people."
Taiwanese legislator Wu Lihua, who has been continuously involved in rescuing members of human trafficking gangs, told BBC Chinese that this incident has once again highlighted that human trafficking has not ceased in Taiwan, and the indigenous communities have once again become the target of these organizations.
Since the beginning of this year, Wu Lihua has received complaints from the public and has cooperated with government agencies to rescue about 20 indigenous youths back to Taiwan, but the calls for help have not stopped.
Wu Lihua, who comes from an indigenous family, analyzed her experiences and observations.
Indigenous Taiwanese Youth Targeted
Before becoming a Taiwanese legislator, Wu Lihua worked as a teacher and principal in a tribal elementary school, closely observing the plight of indigenous youth for decades.
She explained that the environment in indigenous tribes is relatively simple, and the indigenous youth, being educated to be friendly and trusting, easily become targets for human trafficking gangs.
Wu Lihua said that since July, she has received many complaints from indigenous families, discovering that family members who went to Cambodia either lost contact or were seeking help from their families, claiming they were deceived into engaging in illegal fraud. Most of them are teenagers, aged from 18 to 35 years old.
Because these cases involve many legal and diplomatic issues, Wu Lihua opened a group on social media, inviting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the police to join, as well as colleagues from the Legislative Yuan to help these people escape their plight.
"I received complaints about these cases in July, and at that time not many people were paying attention to this issue... until now it has become an international incident, and perhaps the Cambodian government also feels the pressure and has started to intervene," Wu Lihua analyzed.
The cases she handles involve youths who went there around July, which is the graduation season, and were deceived. Human trafficking gangs mostly recruit them through the youths' friends in the community to work abroad.
Many people want to earn some money to help with family expenses or pay off debts. "There was also a case of a very good dancer, who was told there were opportunities to perform abroad and earn money... Another young man's wife had cancer, and he wanted to earn money for medical expenses. Because he types very fast, he thought he could work in computer-related jobs there, but it turned out to be a scam, and he couldn't even get his own heart medication. He went there from Thailand, so he was asked for a higher ransom," Wu Lihua said.
Wu Lihua revealed that although her team has helped nearly 20 people return to Taiwan so far, many are still waiting for rescue.
One of the focuses of the rescue work is to negotiate a "termination fee" with the local company before they let people return to Taiwan. The termination fees range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, and negotiating the amount is often a difficult bargaining process.
According to Taiwanese media reports, many people are now willing to lend money interest-free through representatives like Wu Lihua to help these people return to Taiwan.
"Some are sisters calling for help, brothers going to rescue their sisters, and also getting stuck there and unable to return. Usually, those who can terminate their contracts are those who perform poorly at work, those with poor scamming skills. There was a case where someone was asked to do romance scams there, but he couldn't deceive anyone... These people are more likely to be let go. On the other hand, those who 'work' well or are promoted to managers are very difficult to rescue, which is also a very difficult issue now," Wu Lihua said.
Wu Lihua believes that the human trafficking gangs have a planned approach to finding young tribal members to deceive in indigenous communities, "This is a typical case of human trafficking, using many deceptive techniques, targeting indigenous communities, and deceiving young people. I think of decades ago, many indigenous people left their hometowns to work on distant fishing boats, and were eventually cheated of their wages or thrown overboard, and many tribal members were deceived down the mountains, sold in big cities, and these human rights violations seem to be happening again."
Reporters learned that indigenous communities across Taiwan have started broadcasting in Mandarin and tribal languages daily, reminding community members to be aware of the dangers of job scams.
"Do we need to spend so much money to rescue them?"
Although Wu Lihua and many civil groups emphasize that rescuing people is the first priority, different voices have also emerged in Taiwanese public opinion. Some people criticize these rescued young people, most of whom knew they were going to Cambodia to engage in fraud before leaving Taiwan, and many have backgrounds in organized crime. They question the necessity of the government and civil groups spending efforts to rescue them: "Do we need to spend so much money to rescue them? What about the situation of those who were scammed?" a person working in a government department complained to reporters.
Taiwanese media "Mirror Weekly" cited data analysis from the Taipei City Government, stating that in the past month, 27 cases of people going to Cambodia and losing contact were reported, 75% of whom had a criminal record for fraud and organized crime, and two were about to be wanted. The report stated that the police officer in charge said that the intellectual level of Taiwanese people is not low, and it is unlikely that so many people were deceived by high salaries and then sold into miserable conditions. Therefore, those who really went were mostly people within the fraud circle.
Many Taiwanese thus hold a critical attitude towards those rescued back to Taiwan. Especially those involved in fraud often find themselves without help, and many elderly people have been cheated out of their life savings.
"Ruins Youth"
But Jian Yongda believes that perhaps we should also ask why young people from low-income families in Taiwanese society, under various economic and social pressures, get involved in the fraud industry.
Currently a visiting scholar at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, Jian Yongda has worked with families and youth below the poverty line in Taiwan, discussing issues of wealth disparity and youth, and published the book "Ruins Youth" with colleagues a few years ago, sparking public attention.
One of the youths he met, A Xiong (pseudonym), was involved in the overseas fraud industry.
Jian Yongda told reporters that A Xiong's parents had guaranteed a failed business for a relative, and also took on a huge debt. Overnight, A Xiong's family went from being well-off to owing a huge bank debt.
As a result, his parents went to work away from home, and A Xiong, still young, had to live with different relatives, experiencing the warmth and coldness of human relationships. After graduating from elementary school, he started working. Later, his parents, who were construction workers, took A Xiong from middle school, and the family finally reunited, renting a room in northern Taiwan where the three of them could live together.
But A Xiong told Jian Yongda that one day during the summer vacation when he was 16, he received a letter from the court, which shocked him. Because he found out that his family owed a debt to the Taiwanese court, and not a penny had been paid back, because his family of three was now working hard just to make ends meet, let alone pay off the debt.
Therefore, when a friend asked A Xiong, "Do you want to do fraud?" A Xiong just asked, "Does it pay well?" When the friend said it did, A Xiong agreed immediately. A Xiong went home and told his mother, "I'm going to make big money, and when I come back, our family will be different."
According to Jian Yongda, A Xiong, who had never been abroad, had his passport processed and plane ticket booked by others, and about 40 young people, ranging from 16 to over 20 years old, all strangers from different places, looked bewildered. He only found out at the airport that the place he was going to work was far away in the Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic.
Upon arriving in the Dominican Republic, A Xiong was immediately taken to a large villa, where several rooms were filled with many phones and computer screens. After a brief "employee training," A Xiong specialized in scamming elderly people in mainland China, with one group acting as customer service and another group acting as public security, intimidating the elderly. He said that on his first day at work, a member of the neighboring group successfully scammed a mainland Chinese citizen of 5 million yuan, and just as they were about to celebrate, A Xiong told the team leader, "This isn't right..." and he was immediately taken away and locked in the basement as punishment. He took advantage of the guard's shower time to grab his phone and call his mother in Taiwan for help. After a lot of negotiation, he finally paid the money to return to Taiwan.
Jian Yongda explained that from A Xiong to many other youths he has met, many are struggling below the poverty line, their jobs are high-hour, low-wage, non-permanent labor, making it difficult to accumulate experience in their careers as a stepping stone, and it is easy to move on to the next contract job. Some families already have financial problems, and relying on these jobs, it is very difficult to escape poverty, so some young men and women take risks to engage in fraud or other high-risk jobs.
Jian Yongda emphasized that he found that the circle of friends or contacts of these youths are also friends hovering on the edge of poverty, and these friends may not necessarily intend to harm A Xiong, but the only method they can think of is to introduce fraud jobs or other borderline legal industries to help their friends make quick money. "For A Xiong, there really weren't many options. If I were him, I might not have been able to make a better choice."
