Human Trafficking for Cyber Slavery and Crimes

Abstract

Human trafficking is a punishable offence under the Penal Code of Sri Lanka. Trafficking can take various forms, including forced labor and sexual exploitation. Vulnerable groups, such as women and children, face risks due to deceptive or coercive tactics used by criminal networks. Economic crisis induced by a lack of manufacturing and exports, corruption, debt burden, and the failure of mega projects multiplied the unemployment in the country and forced people to leave the country for employment opportunities for their and their family survival. Human traffickers exploited the situation in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan migrants were trafficked to Myanmar for cyber scamming activities. They were promised legitimate IT and customer service jobs but ended up being exploited. It is believed that at present, nearly fifty-five Sri Lankans, including both males and females, have been trapped in the area called Golden Triangle, bordering Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, and nearly 5000 US dollars have been demanded by the Chinese running the cybercriminal area. Sri Lanka established a new Human Trafficking, Smuggling Investigation, and Maritime Crimes Division within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to combat trafficking crimes, and this division is more accessible for potential victims to report complaints. This study strives to explore the background and gravity of the recently shocked human trafficking incidents in the country for cybercrimes from outside of the country through desk research for future primary research to raise awareness among university students