Details have emerged on how desperate jobless fresh university graduates are lured by fake recruitment agencies that collude with some embassy staff in Nairobi into signing up for jobs in Thailand, only to end up in forced labour camps in Myanmar.

Although the government insists that only about 1,000 Kenyans, mostly aged between 19 and 35, are suspected to be stranded in labour camps in Myanmar, investigations by People Daily indicate the figure could be as high as 7,000, given the number of duped individuals leaving the country daily.

And the journey for the gullible young Kenyans – who end up being trafficked to Myanmar, where they are forced to work in scam centres, kept in slave-like conditions and forced to work long hours with little or no pay – cost them an arm and a leg, as they pay in excess of Sh1 million.

Monthly targets

But unbeknown to them as they cough up huge amounts of money in anticipation of getting well-paying jobs abroad, once they land in the hands of traffickers, they are forced to meet a monthly target of $50,000 (Sh6.46 million) through the scamming schemes.

The situation has reached a “crisis level”, says Kenya’s ambassador to Thailand, Lindsay Kiptiness, cautioning people applying for jobs online, particularly in the South East Asian countries of Thailand, India, Bangladesh, China and Laos, to be careful.

“Kenyans are more preferred by the Chinese mafia behind the scam because of their fluency in English, which they can use to lure individuals from USA and most parts of Europe being targeted by the cartels to be scammed,” Kiptiness told us by telephone from Bangkok.

The people often targeted by the cartels are fresh university graduates well conversant with latest technology apps used by the scammers.

The drama usually begins with local fake recruitment agencies that liaise with the Chinese mafia, advertising lucrative job openings in Thailand and offering visa and placement fees.

“The adverts are placed on online sites that are visited by millions of youth, who will obviously fall prey and send in their applications,” says Kiptiness.

Advertised jobs include teachers, translators, office administrators, computer technicians, air hostesses, accountants, auditors and transport coordinators, some offering enticing salaries ranging from Sh1 million to Sh2 million a month.

People Daily has established that three of the notorious fake recruitment agencies operate from Nairobi’s central business district, while two others are based in Kilimani.

These agencies operate under the protection of some officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the National Intelligence Service. The two groups reportedly collect commissions from the fake agencies every month for protection.

The agents involved in the recruitment are not registered with the government and therefore their activities are not known, says Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua.

“It is difficult to determine the number of Kenyans trafficked to Myanmar because we only come to learn of their fates when they are in total distress and want to be rescued,” Mutua says.

“Though we shall continue with the rescue efforts, people need to learn lessons and be careful, as well as stop being greedy when higher amounts of money are mentioned.”

Kenyans who have been rescued are being debriefed to determine the agencies that recruited them and where they are located, Mutua added.

“It is a big scam being undertaken by crooks on desperate Kenyans,” he says.

The applicants are then required to pay 45,000 Chinese yuan (about Sh797,945) as application and processing fees.

Once the fee is paid, the applicant receives a letter confirming that he or she has been successful and is required to visit the Thailand embassy in Nairobi for a visa and other documentation.

Interestingly, the cartels have planted their agents at the Thai embassy whose responsibility is to ensure that the visa applications of would-be victims are processed expeditiously to avoid raising any eyebrows.

Passports confiscated

Ahead of the applicant’s visit to the embassy, he or she is asked to part with between Sh250,000 and Sh300,000 for a visa, an air ticket, and accommodation for the first three days in Thailand.

“They will lie to you that the ticket is a two-way – going and returning. But once you arrive in Myanmar, that is the time you discover that you were duped and that the ticket is only a one-way one,” said Tom, who was among the first Kenyans recently rescued from the war-torn South East Asian country.

We emailed questions to the Thai embassy in Nairobi and it promised to respond, but it had not responded by press time.

With all the documents processed, the would-be victim is asked to surrender his or her passport to the recruitment agency, which would then hand it over to an agent required to escort the group to Thailand.

“It is [an] elaborate network that includes immigration officials both in Kenya and Thailand to ensure a flawless operation,” says Kiptiness.

Upon arrival in Bangkok, the victims are whisked from the airport into waiting vehicles ostensibly to be taken to their hotel rooms.

But along the way, the victims are kidnapped and driven for more than nine hours to the town of Mae Sot, on the border of Thailand and Myanmar.

“Things start unravelling very fast once the victims exit Bangkok International Airport. It is here that we found ourselves held captive by the persons we had expected were taking us to our hotels,” says Tom, with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“After almost a day’s journey that lasted about nine hours, we stopped at the border town, where we waited for darkness to be sneaked into Myanmar.”

In Mynamar, the victims are separated into groups, with some taken to scamming centres, where they are given four mobile phones and a laptop to scam nationals in Europe, USA and Canada, among other countries.

Scamming compounds

At the heavily guarded scamming compounds, the victims are herded into small, crowded rooms that they share with several other young men and women, many of whom had also arrived from various parts of Africa.

Here they are forced to work long shifts, with their primary task being to engage in online fraud.

“We were first trained on how to convince people, mostly in Europe and the US, to invest money in bogus investment schemes, fake cryptocurrency deals, and fraudulent online businesses,” says another victim, who declined to provide her name for fear of potential repercussions.

“The work was gruelling, with threats of punishment if we failed to meet the quotas set by our captors.”

As days turn into weeks, the reality of the victims’ situation becomes horrifyingly clear.

There is no escape. The sweet-talking and caring agent is nowhere to be found, and the men and women remain isolated, their passports confiscated by the traffickers.

“We were told we owed them money for our travel expenses and lodging, which we could not repay due to the low wages paid,” says Tom.

Rescued victims described conditions in the scamming compounds as appalling.

The meals are sparse, and any complaint is met with threats of violence or further exploitation. The traffickers are ruthless individuals who treat their African victims as mere tools for making money.

Tom says men are watched constantly, and any attempt to speak out or resist is crushed quickly.

“Our group was told we had no choice but to work in order to offset our purported debt,” Tom says.

The traffickers are bold and demand ransom from the families of victims who insist on leaving, Kiptiness says. Those who cannot pay ransom are forced into donating body organs like kidneys.