Two human traffickers have pleaded guilty to luring five Hong Kong residents to Southeast Asia where they were held captive and forced to scam others online, in one of the most severe cases of residents’ safety being compromised overseas.
Ma Che-hou, 32, and Joshua Cheung Man-waai, 25, admitted to conspiracy to defraud in the District Court, while a third defendant’s charge was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
The victims, aged between 20 and 32, were tricked into travelling to Cambodia or Thailand under false pretenses of financial gain. They were subjected to forced labor in areas controlled by criminal groups.
One victim, Ng Sik-ming, 29, recounted a harrowing experience of physical abuse including being handcuffed, electrocuted, and confined in a cage for refusing to work at a Chinese-run fraud operation in Myanmar.