For seven months, Mr Francis Kamugisha was forced to work every day in heavily guarded scam mills in Laos and Myanmar after being lured to South-east Asia in August 2022 by the promise of an IT job. His friend had referred him to an IT manager position at a data management company in Laos paying US$1,500 (S$2,040) a month. Mr Kamugisha, who is Ugandan, grabbed the chance as he could not find stable employment in Dubai, where he was living at the time.
When he arrived in Laos’ capital Vientiane, two employees from the “company” picked him up and took him to his new workplace in Ton Pheung district, which borders Myanmar. He sensed something was wrong when he saw armed guards patrolling the compound and was told to sign a contract that was different from the terms he had been offered. He said: “I refused to sign it, but they had taken away my belongings, including my phone and passport. They told me to pay them 16,000 yuan (S$3,030) if I wanted to leav