Two human traffickers have pleaded guilty to coaxing five Hongkongers into travelling to Southeast Asia, where they were held captive and forced to scam others online in one of the worst cases involving residents’ safety overseas in recent years.
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Ma Che-hou, 32, and Joshua Cheung Man-waai, 25, each admitted to a charge of conspiracy to defraud in the District Court on Wednesday. A count of the same offence against a third defendant, Shum Mung-sze, 29, was dropped before trial due to insufficient evidence.
The two convicted men tricked five men, now aged between 20 and 32, into travelling to either Cambodia or Thailand in 2021 and 2022 under the pretence of earning quick cash, collecting prize money or developing business opportunities abroad.
Two victims flew to Cambodia and were taken to Sihanoukville, a port city which has become a semi-lawless region due to the proliferation of scam businesses controlled mostly by Chinese mafia groups.
The other three went to Thailand and were taken by land to neighbouring Myanmar to work at KK Park, a Chinese-run fraud factory where thousands of forced labourers are believed to have been detained.
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One victim, Ng Sik-ming, 29, told the court he was subject to repeated physical abuse after he refused to work. He said he was assaulted while handcuffed to either a bed or pole, electrocuted with a stun gun and once locked in a cage for four days during his month-long ordeal that began in July 2022, the court heard.