PHOTO ESSAY: Inside a detention center where scam workers wait for their return home

PASAY, Philippines (AP) — He had lost count of the number of times he was sold from company to company in the Philippines.

After being lured there for an office job from his village in southern China by a relative, Wind said he immediately realized the job wasn’t as advertised. Instead of doing administrative work in Manila for 10,000 yuan ($1,500) a month as promised, he was required to scam people and paid around $50, he said.

When he proved unable to scam, he was sold, he said. For the next several years, until the Filipino police raided his company, he was caught in a cycle, underperforming in scams, beaten and then sold. He was sold at least half a dozen times, ranging from a few thousand dollars to the highest, at 2.1 million pesos ($34,000), he said.

“I regret it, but there’s no point in regret,” he said of his experience.

Wind is one of the many scam workers swept up in the industrial-scale cyberscam operations that have arisen in Southeast Asia in recent years, from the Philippines to Cambodia. As part of these operations, workers may sit in front of a computer up to 16 hours a day to carry out complex online scams. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates that more than 300,000 people from across 66 countries make up the workforce.

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban in July 2024 on all scam operations, many of them masked as online gambling businesses, launching a nationwide crackdown. Initial raids saw large numbers of workers rescued, but the criminal outfits then splintered into smaller operations that are now harder to detect.

Wind, who was interviewed last year, was rescued along with 400 other foreign workers from the infamous Bamban scam compound raided in March 2024, that was partly established by former Philippines mayor Alice Guo, now sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking. He used a pseudonym, as part of the condition of interviewing someone who was serving in the witness protection program for the Philippines authorities who are prosecuting the cases.

Today, he's still waiting for his return home, in the Nasdake building, seized by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) in 2023.

Many of those staying in the Nasdake building came from the region, like Vietnam, China, and Malaysia, but one man came from as far abroad as Madagascar. Some had been trafficked, others came of their own accord in hopes of making money.

Jade, another witness from China who agreed to speak on similar terms as Wind, said he was beaten multiple times. One of those times was so bad he had to go and get his teeth pulled out afterward from the pain, he said.

“I was beaten because I didn’t want to scam,” he said during an interview last year.

Violence is a feature of the industry, used to coerce its workers.

Office spaces take up much of the floorspace inside the Nasdake building, a six-story former scam compound transformed into a temporary detention facility by the Philippines government. Other spaces include a mini karaoke lounge, and massage area with private suites.

But the entertainment rooms and luxurious areas where the bosses and senior managers were pampered sit on the same floor as a sparse room decorated with a single metal bar where people were tortured, authorities showed the AP in a tour.

At its peak, the detention facility held more than 900 people, the PAOCC said. The numbers fluctuate, as repatriations are organized. Now, the center holds about 70 people.

The complex is run jointly by the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Jail Management. The workers are mostly confined to their rooms, where four to six per room are squeezed in wooden bunk beds. Others sleep on mattresses on the floor, divided in small sections in a large open room.

Many are simply waiting for a return ticket from their government, and they stay anywhere from a few weeks to months to years.

Wind, who had testified, was among the few who were willing to be interviewed. He had been rescued from the infamous Baofu scam compound that was linked to former mayor Guo, who is still facing money laundering charges.

At Baofu, 1.5 hours outside of Manila, officials counted some 36 buildings, mostly small stand-alone villas in the raid and a few larger dormitories. The complex, which overshadows Bamban city hall, was a mix of luxury and utility, boasting a swimming pool and Chinese restaurants, but also bunk beds for workers.

After he was rescued from the Baofu compound, Wind said his experience there had changed him. “I don’t feel like there’s anyone you can trust. Everyone’s out to cheat you.”

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This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors