SINGAPORE — The police are monitoring potential human trafficking of scam victims who are lured by scam syndicates to “work” in other countries, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Monday (Oct 3).
Mr Shanmugam was responding to a parliamentary question by Mr Saktiandi Supaat, Member of Parliament (MP) for Bishan-Toa Payoh Group Representation Constituency, who asked whether the police’s Anti-Scam Command Office was looking into potential cases of victims baited by syndicates to work in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.
In a written response, Mr Shanmugam referred Mr Saktiandi to a reply last month when he told Parliament that there has been one police report since 2021 involving potential Singaporean victims.
The report, however, was lodged based on secondhand information. The complainant claimed that he had heard from another party that there were Singaporean victims possibly kept against their will in Myanmar to work for scam syndicates there.
“The complainant stated that he had not personally spoken to the said Singaporeans, and did not have any other information or details regarding the identity of the Singaporeans,” Mr Shanmugam said.
The Singapore police have referred this case to the authorities in Myanmar for assistance, he added.
Last month, the Global Anti-Scam Organisation, a group fighting human trafficking and cybercrime in Southeast Asia, claimed that there were “more than a hundred” Singaporeans held captive in a Cambodian…
