Bangladeshi migrants trafficked into cyber
A report details how Bangladeshi migrants are lured to Cambodia via social media job ads, trafficked into scam compounds, and forced to commit online
Sajjad Hossain, a 23-year-old graduate from Comilla, Bangladesh, paid BDT 450,000 (USD 3,640) in 2025 for a promised data-entry job in Phnom Penh. Within 48 hours of arrival, his passport was seized and the job vanished, trapping him in a scam compound. His story, documented in a report by GlobalVoices, exemplifies a widespread pattern of technology-facilitated human trafficking targeting Bangladeshi workers.
The digital recruitment trap
A three-tiered network of illicit recruiting agencies, complicit travel operators, and middlemen uses social media to ensnare victims. These middlemen, or dalals, embed themselves in trusted online spaces like Facebook, WhatsApp, and imo. They post ordinary-looking job ads promising high wages and instant visas, often bolstering their claims with Telegram groups featuring fake "successful migrants."
Syed Saiful Haque, Chairman of the migrant-led WARBE Development Foundation, stated that Cambodia is not a genuinely lucrative destination for Bangladeshi workers. "It is manufactured by dishonest recruiting agencies promoting supposed high-paid IT-related or hospitality jobs," he said. Exploitative middlemen and some travel agencies capitalize on desperation, marketing it as a cheap and fast alternative.
Migration researcher Riaz Ahmed warned that migrants often travel without verifying key details. Reality changes when they step into those lands, he told GlobalVoices. Every single promise turns out to be a scam.
The financial trap is severe. While official migration costs are set between USD 654 and USD 1,258, brokers charged victims between USD 2,835 and USD 4,450 for flights alone. This is a crippling sum when the average monthly salary in Bangladesh is estimated at around USD 329.
Confiscation and forced labor
Upon arrival in Cambodia, the promised jobs collapse. Passports are confiscated immediately. Victims are then priced and traded between operators for sums ranging from USD 1,500 to USD 4,000. One victim described waiting in a nondescript building to be sold to another company after his visa expired. Another said a broker refused his request for a different job, instead forcing his family to send more money.
Families are extorted for ransoms as large as USD 3,000 to secure a relative's release, with the threat of the victim being resold if they cannot pay. Pramit Khandaker of the Bangladesh Probashi Oikko Foundation highlighted the families' agony. Many have lost their family’s entire savings already, he said. Victims seeking legal recourse often lack the necessary payment records or receipts to file cases.
Returnees report violence, mistreatment, and torture inside the holding facilities.
The scale of forced cybercrime
Trafficked victims are forced to conduct online scams, including romance scams (pig butchering), fake investments, and cryptocurrency fraud. A 2026 UN report estimates at least 300,000 people are trapped in such scam farms globally. The operations resemble disciplined call centers but are run with prison-like control.
The financial devastation is personal. One returnee spent USD 4,047 to secure what he thought was a casino job, earned only USD 972 from forced scamming, and his family later paid an additional USD 1,214 for his release and return home.
Cambodian authorities have conducted raids, hitting 118 sites and arresting roughly 5,000 people in a six-month period this year. The country endorsed its first dedicated anti-scam law in April, threatening life imprisonment for the worst offenders. However, syndicate organizers are adapting, breaking large compounds into smaller cells hidden in Phnom Penh apartment blocks.
A fraudulent migration corridor
Official data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET) shows 17,031 Bangladeshi migrants traveled to Cambodia for work between June 2023 and July 2026. Alarmingly, 98 percent did not receive the job they were promised, indicating the corridor is fraudulent by design. Bangladesh has no consular presence in Cambodia, leaving migrants without embassy support.
Since June 2026, Bangladesh has repatriated 583 trafficked citizens from Cambodia, part of roughly 1,800 who have returned this year. One returnee had to spend USD 2,266, including penalty fees for overstaying, to get home. Another pooled money from relatives to survive nine idle months. There are no working opportunities, he said upon landing. Anyone who goes to Cambodia will fall into a trap of criminal syndicates.
Sajjad Hossain was rescued during a raid after four months inside a compound. He returned home with no savings and significant debt, a burden his family is still repaying.
