The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has worked together with the Singapore Police Force and other law enforcement agencies in various nations, such as India and China, in order to bust a global racket in human trafficking that also doubled as a cybercrime operation.
Thousands of trafficked victims, who were being held captive and forced to work at scam call centres, have been rescued in the joint operations.
A report by The Straits Times today said that this “global operation by Interpol uncovered dozens of cases”. The publication quoted Interpol as saying that these scams — trafficked victims, who were already cheated, being forced to cheat even more people — marked “a shift from traditional trafficking patterns”.
ST reported that Interpol and its law enforcement partners “rescued 3,222 potential human-trafficking victims following its largest operation, called Operation Liberterra II, against people smuggling from Sept 29 to Oct 4”.
An Interpol media release dated November 6 said: “Authorities around the world conducted police raids, reinforced strategic border points, monitored nearly 24,000 flights and deployed officers to known trafficking and smuggling hotspots. Globally, nearly 8 million checks were carried out against Interpol’s databases. A total of 2,517 arrests were made during the week — 850 of which were specifically on human trafficking or migrant smuggling charges.”
Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are increasingly linked to other forms of crime, often using the same criminal networks and routes. This overlap amplifies profits and power for organised crime groups, making enforcement more complex. The need for a whole-of-crime approach was evident throughout the operation week.
Interpol media release
The global agency said: “Targeting online scam centres using human trafficking victims has been an operational priority since Interpol issued an Orange Notice warning its membership of this growing and globalizing trend. In many of these cases, victims are lured with false promises of employment and are kept [at the scam centres] through intimidation and abuse.”
It added: “In the Philippines, for example, officers raided a warehouse where more than 250 people, mostly Chinese nationals, were running romance scams on an industrial scale. Officers are now combing through seized devices and carrying out interviews to separate the potential victims of trafficking from members of the criminal enterprise.”
