According to a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, criminal gangs linked to Southeast Asia's online scam centres are expanding their activities into Africa, Latin America, and other vulnerable regions thanks to technological developments. The business – described as a “cancer” by experts – generates almost US$ 40 billion a year in profits. Online platforms that are only accessible privately and gambling sites are at the heart of this illegal ecosystem.

Southeast Asia expert  Bridget Welsh analyses Kuala Lumpur's first steps at the helm of the bloc: the leadership will be successful if it puts ‘the interests of those who live in the region above those of its leaders’. ‘Calling for “inclusive elections” in Myanmar contradicts the real situation on the ground’.

Cambodia’s best-known independent journalist still active despite ongoing repression has been arrested. His posts on social media on environmental damage caused by stone quarries were probably the pretext used by the authorities to detain him on charges of causing “social disorder". Dara was also actively reporting on online scams by transnational crime syndicates employing people in slave-like conditions. He joins about a hundred political prisoners already in detention in Cambodia.

Despite Myanmar’s conflict, many Sri Lankans still travel to the former Burma in search of work but end up victims in trafficking networks. At least 40 have been freed recently, but dozens more are still captive. The authorities urge Sri Lankans, often vainly, to look for work at agencies registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).

A medical facility in Pasay with Chinese and Vietnamese doctors and nurses has been shut down. According to investigators, victims of modern-day slavery forced to work in online scams who fall ill or suffer torture are brought to these facilities, which are also used by fugitives seeking changes to their physical appearance to escape police.

A new report notes that returns from cyber scams generate an estimated at US$ 12.5 billion in a country whose GDP is below US$ 30 billion. This is keeping foreign investors away, weakening economic development. While the authorities have started to crack down, they can only go so far since many of those involved are Chinese nationals, protected by their country’s economic involvement in Cambodia.