now was it, what did you when calls a living house? how school gardens and cambodia are a lifeline for, for families as food insecurity. where i'm working with my colleague is always my news and analysis on our website to at t w dot com and clarity for lynn for me. and the team works behind the scenes. ah, interest the global economy, our portfolio g w business beyond. here's a closer look at the project. our mission. to analyze the flight for market

dominance. get a step ahead with d w business beyond a thought say what grade level we go. this is the w news asia coming up today, 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 hell to ransom victim say they forced to work for a network of swindlers running online scans and growing mines in cambodia as schools and tackling the food crisis by teaching kids category their own vegetables

. ah, i've 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 where the scan begins. this next footage is disturbing. human traffickers and 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 scamming and g o says abuses sent these videos the captives as a warning boggle's law. according to local media,

the victims of these gangs include tie when a's hong kong is chinese citizens, ties and vietnamese nationals. most of them end up in c, a knoxville and lawless port city in cambodia or mia, woody and me and mar. some are reportedly forced to work in laos and thailand they passports confiscated online boiler room rackets have long had a presence in the region. but as more details emerge, local law enforcement agencies. awaking up to this cross border phenomena, it'll take international cooperation to save these people. the un human rights envoy recently visited cambodia where hundreds of taiwanese are said to be trapped with jumping from hell. i refuse to go along with relay a 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 service to tag and, but there is the one thing incumbent, so they always claim easy work for high pay. and also flights and accommodations are almost always included. so and up 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 they've 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, n g o, which is called castle,

where lucia is volunteering at right now. and they told me that those images were sent by victims after they were beaten by abuses using what's dogs or electro shock devices while 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 waiting for help. yeah. local governments are happen that 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, you don't, you don't know the operating of these scam groups are linked to lots of infrastructure

and job opportunities to actually with all of these can help boost the local economy. we've only been using 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 a new sharon mentioned to me that the majority of the victims are actually chinese . that it just never really made it into the media or into the 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 brought initiative that helped build up a whole special economic soon. right next to the city of seo knoxville. the most you, on this lots of chinese work is came to work in real estate development. all the gambling industry, new though, so chinese investments became the pillar of silk, feels 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 activity. 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. strick 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 gas. all said that these groups have, unfortunately, or in 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. um, 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 will do it to cambodia. but then just when i started to do it some more research, i realize 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, world malnutrition and poverty have long plight. 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 int,

amid global shortages and rampant inflation. but as food prices rise, the school veggie patch has become a safety net for struggling families that were not 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 to give these kids the skills to grow food themselves, food and you. oh, my family, amazon. his act 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, then we learn lots. so, and we're really happy in the learning garden as my yvonne think, jack all 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 company and 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 they can travel one up and by kara, the program is become a crucial safety net in a country where poverty and hunger ever present. at these children's clinic health work as a treating 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. couple time parents are putting their kids 1st to ensure them a bit of future at a time of so much uncertainty in 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. see then, with cheer and the man. we take a trip through scotland with the whisky vicar, the catholic priest, wife concave, who is a self proclaimed church rebel fighting for progress and change in his church. and when he is not working, the course to understand, no holiness who,

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