mediterranean, ah, it's waters connect people of many cultures seen it almost rock and jaffar. abdul karim drift along with exploring modern lifestyles and mediterranean where has history left its traces, meeting people, hearing their dreams ready to me during this week on d. w. this is the w news asia coming up to date, the promise of romance, or a high paid tech job, only to land in one of these high security compounds in southeast asia beaten, or hel to ransom victim say they forced to work for a network of swindlers. running on line scans and growing mines in cambodia, our schools a,

tackling the food crisis by teaching kids how to grow their own vegetables. ah, i been puzzling, glad you could join us. young, well educated, but out of work and prepared to move abroad for what sounds like a great opportunity. but that's way the scan begins. this next footage is disturbing. schuman traffic is in parts of southeast asia, have been trolling social media, promising high salary jobs and easy loans. early to hand over the international applicants to telecom and online fraud rings, operating and fenced off, compounds supposedly torturing the detainees into working for them as cyber scammers, to prey on other people, a highly lucrative operation. and the workers risk death if they try escaping a closely guarded desks, a global anti scabbing g o says abuses sent these videos,

the captives as a warning barbara, according to local media, the victims of these gangs include taiwanese, hong kong is chinese citizens, ties and vietnamese nationals, most of them end up in c, a knoxville and lola's port city and cambodia or mia, woody and me, in my summer, reportedly forced to work in laos and thailand. they passports confiscated online boy, the room rackets have long had a presence in the region. but as more details emerge, local law enforcement agencies. a waking up to this cross border phenomenon. it'll take international cooperation to save these people. the un human rights envoy recently visited cambodia where hundreds of taiwanese is said to be trapped. the abbey reporter, ready to explain javi from there. well, billy is gay. refuse to go along with to relay the message to

r o. d w reporter, hung schwend lee has been following the story for us, whose behind these criminal groups, or there are indications that these groups might be linked to chinese gangs. i'll go into the details later, but what really shocked me during my research was the scale of these operations, how big they have become different. and she also estimated the number of people trapped in the scam industry. add up to tens of thousands. and this is because they have a whole system supporting it, and this is how they usually do it. so human traffickers often post job ads on social media targeting young people and the jobs very a lot. so sometimes are ranging from accounting to customer servers to tag and, but there is the one thing incumbent, so they always claim easy work for high pay. and also flight and accommodations are almost always included. so under to our viewers leg, watch out if this happens,

because this is not a good sign. and if these pete, once these people arrive at the airport, their passports will get confiscated. and they will be driven to building complexes where they were forced to work in so called boiler rooms for up to 15 hours a day. and there they had to run illegal online or phone scams that involves or gambling, for example, or investment in crypto currency or romance. meaning that builds up a relationship and asked for money afterwards. now i have spoken to a victim turned rescuer. lashondra is his name, and this was his experience. just all when i told him i wasn't meant to be there that had got the wrong guy. the gang said they'd bought me for 12000 u. s. dollars and showed me the transaction record. i was sold by an agent or nowadays that get at least $20000.00 us dollars for each a bit. from what i mentioned before, escaping doesn't sound like an opposite. no,

not really because of these people are trapped in areas, heavily guarded by security forces. and now a rush hour is sent me these clips that he said was sent by the victims, the captives. and he himself told me that the area was and, and closed district with shops with restaurants, with supermarket. so just like a normal neighborhood, but with the exception that it is actually fenced off and there is no way for them to leave. it sounds very yeah. rational. and if they try to escape, this is what will happen. and that's what lucia told me. some of those who tried to escape a beaten to death, that happens very often. so why would you dare try to escape them? if you resist, they'll sell you to the next scammer organization in my altho beat you up by me on it. but now i can't verify the claims about deaths, but i have received

a few images from an anti scam, angie or which is called castle, where lucia is volunteering at right now. and the told me that those images were sent by victims after they were beaten by abuses using what's dogs or electro shock devices. why are local governments stepping in to rescue these people? if they're aware of this now and you're saying this is huge, that it sounds like a lot of people are trapped and i'm waiting for help. yeah. local governments are happen to rescue people from time to time, but they never did it whole heartedly. and in fact, i have spoken to another n g o, a new york based, and you called china labor watch. and i've asked the same question because they have been watching the situation. the human trafficking situation in places like cambodia for years already. and this is what founder li chung told me to hug and the operating of these scam groups are linked to lots of infrastructure

and job opportunities. security was that all of these can help boost the local economy with to you. so we shall told me it was never in the interest of local governments of the, or the police to completely eradicate these groups. because after all, this is a big business gas or the other end you. i just mentioned estimates that these operations still up to tens of billions of dollars per year worldwide. and so imagine what that would mean for local economies. it sounds like they have quite a lot of money at their disposal. you mentioned china labor watch. what does this have to do with china? it has a lot to do with china and both the chung and rashondra mentioned to me that the majority of the victims are actually chinese, that it just never really made it to the media oriented news. now this has to do it this, let's take a cambodia as an example again and there the gangs targets

a chinese people at 1st. and that has something to do with b genes, a belt and broad initiative that helped build up a whole special economic zone right next to the city of seo northville. so miss young, this is lots of chinese workers came to work in real estate development. all the gambling industry, new though, so chinese investments became the pillar of silk fuel economy on which is from the now with these investments, the beachside town actually turned into a chinese run casino metropolis. yes. and, and that reportedly gave rise to crimes and gang activities. and at the same time, it also attracted lots of chinese tourists, or it used to attract lots of chinese tourists to come over to cambodia to gamble. now gambling is illegal in both china and cambodia. so at some point, both governments corporate it to crack down on this industry. now the gangs have to

look for something else. so they turned to human trafficking, and at 1st they do it. chinese people to scamp chinese people. and then the pandemic came, so the chinese couldn't leave their country because of beijing, st. covert policy, the gangs then started to turn to other places. and they turned to taiwan to hong kong or vietnam. and that's when the crime started to gain, to gain attention. so these gangs have so much money, their disposal, they're powerful obviously, and they sound very inventive. how hard is it to crack down on them? i think it will be really hard to crack down on them on the angel garzo said that these groups have, unfortunately, or a con global. they have been in touch with, with people from let's in america or from africa who were forced to scan people in, in europe or in north america. so things, of course i can't really verify these claims,

but i do believe that unless governments around the world corporate to climb down on these operations, they will always find ways to survive. how much of a shock was it to you as a journalist, when you stumbled across this story? it was very, very shocking to me. ah, i never thought that i, i started to research when i came to realize that, oh, it's sort of hung like hundreds of taiwanese people were good to cambodia. but then just when i started to do it some more research, i realized that this is actually something global and it really shocked me. it always hung friendly. thank you very much for your reporting. intriguing story. ah lou malnutrition and poverty have long plagued cambodia, a country that suffered decades of turmoil. but the world food program is again sounding the alarm after the economic ravages of the pandemic. food insecurity and

cambodia has worse ant amid global shortages and rampant inflation. but as food prices rise, the school veggie patch has become a safety net for struggling families. in a cambodian children getting their 1st lessons in farming. at this primary school in c, m rip, the vegetable patch is a core part of the curriculum. there is one of dozens of learning god and set up around the country. hollow t of these kids, the skills to grow food themselves. good. you hear my family are models on his side of j in the garden. i learn about measuring and growing plants. yet though, and it's all related to my lessons in the classroom, the and we learn lots. so, and we're really happy in the learning garden as my yvonne think jackal. and that learning is put to good use. at the start of each day, kids are served a free breakfast of rice and fish soup, with vegetables from the garden,

as well as filling empty bellies. the meal program also helps fill these young mines in the classroom on the ground, pullman company. now village mostly has poor families, up at bonham, so the school meal programming shows students have enough nutritious food who allow and it keeps them attending school i. it's hugely reduced the school drop out, right. if that was that was one apple pie kuda. the program has become a crucial safety net in a country where poverty and hunger ever present at this children's clinic health work as a treat in cases of malnourishment, which can be devastating for child's development. now it's feared soaring food prices could make the problem even worse in markets around the country. local staples like duck eggs and cooking oil have shot up, leaving parents with tough choices to feed their families. go and get my kids are growing. what i so we have to find enough food for them to eat,

because they're at that growing age and need to study. so we parents sometimes have to reduce our own portion that will type her parents are putting their kids 1st to ensure them a better future at a time of so much uncertainty and cambodia and with the next empty ball never far away. and you can get more on any of our stories today on our website, the w dot com slash asia. otherwise we'll be back tomorrow. same time, same place. you been with the landscape, a reflection of a turbulent history. the cities, the mosaic of different people and languages. g. ron's mountains reveal unparalleled beauty. ah no special look at

a special country loan from above. start september 16th on d. w. these places in europe are smashing all the records. stepped into a bold adventure. it's the treasure map for modern globetrotters. discover some of you to record breaking sites on your back. youtube and now also invoke form. ah, a new i phone drop has apple fans waiting and an anticipation the i phone 14 is set to take center stage of the company's 1st live event. so we'll start of the pandemic. but rising costs have apple rethinking its reliance on chinese production . and speaking of china, chinese exports slow in august,

growing signs of weakness have some doubting predictions that china can overtake the u. s. economy by 2030, and no signs of el dorado for el salvador, one year after it made bitcoin legal tender. welcome t d w. now i'm christy. platinum, berlin. apple is expected to announce its new i phone model today that's a little earlier than in previous years. it could be with hopes that an additional week or 2 on the market will have a positive effect on the quarterly figures. now holding a hybrid event online and in person marks another change to the way apple has been doing things. and more changes could be ahead when it comes to where it makes its gadgets. the i phone is apple's flagship product. nothing else means more to be american tech giant than the i phone does. almost $41000000000.00 worth of i. phones were sold last quarter, that was just under half of apples. total revenue.