MANILA: Hundreds of people forced to work in an online scam centre in the Philippines were rescued in a raid on Thursday that also saw eight suspects arrested, according to police.

Acting on a tip from a Vietnamese man who alleged to have escaped the sprawling compound north of capital Manila, police said they unmasked an operation where suspected victims of human trafficking were forced into conducting various online scams.

“The rescued workers told us (the company) engages in love scams, romance scam, cryptocurrency scams and other scam activities,” said Gilberto Cruz, executive director of the crime task force that led the pre-dawn raid. “The victims were controlled by having their passports confiscated so they were unable to leave.” Police found 432 Chinese nationals, 371 Filipinos, 57 Vietnamese, eight Malaysians, three Taiwanese, two Indonesians and two Rwandans at the site. The 25-acre complex in Bamban was posing as an internet gaming company, according to a police statement.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2024