The agency released a report documenting torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement and other abuses. The new report said satellite imagery and on-ground reports show that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations are in the Mekong region and have spread to some Pacific Island countries, South Asia, Gulf States, West Africa and the Americas. The report into forced labour at scam centres in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates between 2021 and 2025, reinforced reports of the deprivation that the scam centre workers are put through. People said that police and border guards were sometimes complicit in the scam centres. The UN said that many of the forced labourers were wrongly treated as criminals once freed.

Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha February 20, 2026 06:30 UTC