This research reveals the strategies employed by Chinese organised crime groups in the recruitment, transportation, and exploitation of Thai labourers, highlighting practices such as human trafficking and forced labour within call center scamming operations across Southeast Asia. It also seeks to develop policy recommendations for preventing and addressing new threats posed by human trafficking networks linked to grey Chinese capital. The research adopts a qualitative approach, including group discussions to gain a comprehensive understanding of trafficking tactics used by Chinese criminals and their multifaceted impact on the wellbeing of victims. The findings demonstrate that human trafficking frequently begins with the creation of companies that recruit job seekers and screen victims through fake job advertisements and fraudulent employment agencies, both within and outside Southeast Asia. Once the targeted victims are selected, they are transported to labour sites where their work does not align with the initially agreed-upon conditions. Additionally, traffickers provide monetary compensation to individuals who play a role in deceiving the victims. Should the victims fail to meet job expectations, they face coercion, punishment, resale for labour exploitation elsewhere, and even organ trafficking. The research explores how criminal operations are organised in multi-layered networks that involve cross-border engagement, including corrupt officials and smuggler agents. Victims are, in some cases, rescued through police and military interventions. However, the impact can be severe, ranging from psychological trauma and physical health deterioration to social stigma, which further affects the victims' ability to reintegrate into their community. This situation, in turn, reproduces more traffickers, as victims who face barriers to reintegration often turn to criminal activities. The study concludes with several policy recommendations, including addressing key pain points through the intensive application of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), enhancing officials’ capabilities to keep up with the evolving tactics of human traffickers, strengthening international cooperation, improving coordination with local law enforcement to track criminal activities, and increasing the efficiency of the screening and identification process for victims.
Chalayonnavin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.