Sri Lanka joined countries around the world in observing the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on Thursday, with authorities warning that criminal networks are increasingly trapping victims inside online scam operations.
In a message marking the day, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Chairman of the National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd.) said trafficking is not a distant crime. It can occur across borders, within communities, through workplaces, on online platforms and behind what appear to be legitimate opportunities, he said.
Referring to this year’s global theme, “Trapped Behind the Scam,” Thuyacontha said organised criminal networks are deceiving and trafficking people, then subjecting them to threats, violence and exploitation and forcing them to run online scams and financial fraud.
He made a pointed argument about how such cases appear from the outside. “A person who appears to be committing a crime may, in reality, be acting under coercion,” he said. “Hidden behind a computer screen may be someone who has been deprived of freedom, threatened, abused, and forced to deceive others for the benefit of criminal networks.”
The National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force remains committed to preventing trafficking, identifying and protecting victims, strengthening investigations and prosecutions, and supporting the sustainable reintegration of survivors, the Defence Secretary said.
He stressed that countering trafficking is not the government’s responsibility alone and requires the commitment and cooperation of all sectors of society.
The theme reflects a pattern that has drawn growing international attention, with scam compounds across parts of South-East Asia staffed in significant part by people recruited under false job offers and then held against their will. Sri Lankans have been among those repatriated from such operations in recent years, and a United Nations agency warned earlier this week that online scam centres are fuelling human trafficking worldwide.
