Lindsay

Transnational Crime and Technology Program at @baliprocessrso | Avid tea lover 🍵 | Nature enthusiast 🏕️ | Currently based in 🇹🇭

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

Warmest wishes for the season from the RSO team ✨

We are grateful for the shared commitment of Bali Process Members and regional partners. Your collaboration is the driving force behind our progress this year.

As we move into 2026, we look forward to continued close cooperation and partnership in efforts to counter people smuggling, trafficking in persons and related transnational crime.

We wish you a restful end-of-year period and a prosperous start to the year ahead.

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

🧵 🚨 New Report Launch

Cyber-scam centres in Southeast Asia generate billions in illicit profits each year, targeting fraud victims around the world and exploiting trafficked workers inside tightly controlled compounds. In many cases, they have evolved into integrated, transnational criminal networks linking financial fraud, trafficking in persons, money laundering, and illegal gambling.

📊 A new report by @GI_TOC, supported by the RSO and #ASEAN_ACT 🇦🇺, examines how this criminal economy operates and where coordinated action can disrupt it. 🔗 Read here: https://t.co/86JfkMdgLz

[OSCE Anti-Trafficking @osce_cthb]

Fifty years after the Helsinki Final Act, there are an estimated 27 million victims of #HumanTrafficking. This crime violates victims' #HumanRights and undermines everyone's security.

⏰Time to act: support survivors, hold perpetrators accountable, and remember—victims compelled to commit crimes should not be punished.

📽️Watch our video, featuring @SRKariJohnstone and @TerhiHakala.
Join the movement to #EndHumanTrafficking.

#worlddayagainsttraffickinginpersons
#WorldDayAgainstTrafficking

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

🌏Nationals from 65+ countries have been trafficked into cyber-scam centres, making cross-border law enforcement cooperation central to disrupting their operations.

From dismantling recruitment networks to repatriating victims, consistent, proactive information sharing lies at the heart of an effective response to tackle this growing, evolving form of transnational crime.

This week, investigators from 16 South & Southeast Asian countries are coming together in Chiang Saen, Thailand in the Golden Triangle for an Interregional Technical Workshop on Online Investigations into Trafficking and Cyber-Scam Centres, supported by @FCDOHumanRights 🇧🇩🇧🇹🇮🇳🇲🇻🇳🇵 🇵🇰🇱🇰🇧🇳🇰🇭🇮🇩🇱🇦🇲🇾🇵🇭🇹🇭🇹🇱🇻🇳

Returning participants from workshops in Bangkok and Colombo will share how they've deployed #OSINT in cyber-scam investigations—with a heightened focus on cross-border intelligence sharing through both formal and informal channels.

Investigators will also exchange insights on their frontline experiences, gain context directly from immigration officials working in the Golden Triangle, and explore enhanced information sharing approaches to strengthen their investigations into cyber-scam centres.

Over four days, participants will:
🔎 Apply online investigation skills using real case studies from South and Southeast Asia.
🤝 Exchange experiences from national contexts and build professional relationships, fostering opportunities for cross-border coordination to tackle trafficking into cyber-scam centres.
🎯 Discuss approaches to develop and maintain informal networks to share information, situational updates, and applications of OSINT to trafficking for forced criminality cases.

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

📢 @GI_TOC’s new report, Compound Crime, launched today.

The report, supported by the RSO, provides new insights and context on cyber-scam centre operations, supporting discussions around new avenues for responding to trafficking for forced criminality into cyber-scam centres and transnational crime in the #BaliProcess region.

Read the full report: https://t.co/EwjCs7qeRv

[Global Initiative @GI_TOC]

📞❗️Cyber scam compounds across Southeast Asia are generating billions of dollars by exploiting humans & technology.
Our latest report reveals how these criminal hubs operate and what can be done to stop them.
🔗 Learn more: https://t.co/LfWnHMcuKY

#CyberCrime #HumanTrafficking

[Ryan Winch @winchry]

With trafficking for forced criminality & cyber-scam centres increasingly impacting #SouthAsia 🌏 it’s important that responses are coordinated cross-regionally and that lessons learned Southeast Asia are shared to other Bali Process Members
https://t.co/h8gvDCb552

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

With Sri Lankan nationals 🇱🇰 increasingly at risk of being trafficked into cyber-scam centres—and these operations now increasingly spreading beyond Southeast Asia 🌐—the RSO and Sri Lanka’s National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force convened a Thematic Dialogue to address trafficking for forced criminality.

More than 80 participants attended in person, with a further 60+ joining online from Sri Lankan embassies across the Asia-Pacific 🌏. Discussions focused on the growing challenge of cyber-enabled transnational organised crime, its impact on Sri Lanka, and ways to strengthen national and regional responses — including improving consular support for victims, preventing the spread of cyber-scam centres, and raising broader public awareness to support evidence-based policymaking.

The panel session particularly emphasised:
🛡️ Strengthening law enforcement coordination, both nationally and across borders
🧠 Scaling up psychosocial services and reintegration support for identified victims and returnees
🎓 Expanding prevention initiatives, particularly for recent graduates and youth job seekers
🤖 Leveraging AI to detect and monitor online recruitment patterns used by organised crime groups

@nahttfsrilanka #SriLanka #Scams #CyberScam #TIP

[Lynn Dude @dude_lynn]

Thrilled to have successfully delivered a 5-day #OSINT & intelligence investigation course with the @baliprocessrso, focusing on regional cyber scam centers. Great discussions and insights. Special thanks to @winchry and @lerjavic

[Ryan Winch @winchry]

Day 2 and already seeing participants discuss using OSINT techniques with active cases they're working on 🔍 Good to see practical exercises generating discussion and the regional connections being formed. Excited to see where we get to by Friday! 💻

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

As the growth of cyber-scam centres has added complexity to transnational crime across the Asia-Pacific, providing accessible capacity building opportunities to support evidence-based decision-making is more important than ever.

To support policymakers and law enforcement in countering transnational crime, the RSO & @USIP have signed a new MOU to jointly develop an online course and learning materials that will:

💭Examine the growth and resilience of transnational crime in Southeast Asia
📲 Explore the growth of cyber-enabled crimes, with a focus on trafficking in persons and trafficking for forced criminality
🛠️ Provide practitioners with tools and applied strategies to address transnational crime, trafficking in persons and people smuggling.

Dr. Andrew Wilder, Vice President @USIP’s Asia Center and David Scott, RSO Co-Manager (Australia) marked the MOU’s signing in Bangkok this week, reviewing next steps for the project and discussing deepening the RSO-USIP partnership 🤝

Course materials will be available in Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese and English, and will launch in early spring 2025. Stay tuned for more details 🔔

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

It was a pleasure to host Ambassador Tri Tharyat, Director-General for Multilateral Cooperation and Bali Process Senior Official Co-Chair (Indonesia) 🇮🇩, at the RSO office today to meet the team and discuss the RSO's work plan and priorities for 2024-2026. 🫱🏼‍🫲🏽

[Jane Duke @AusAmbPSHT]

A busy week in Bangkok with 🇹🇭 and regional partners who are working to #endhumantrafficking. We’re focused on disruption, strengthening access to justice, reducing vulnerabilities & protecting victim-survivors of these heinous crimes #ASEAN_ACT #MAPTNC @UNHCRAsia

[OSCE Anti-Trafficking @osce_cthb]

#ArtificialIntelligence is changing everything. Unfortunately, that includes #humantrafficking. Traffickers are now weaponizing #AI and #machine_learning to enhance their criminal activities.
Read our new Policy Brief w/ @baliprocessrso👉https://t.co/WvOvfabQbu👈to understand the complex interplay between AI and #trafficking.

[OSCE @OSCE]

AI is now a tool in human trafficking. Generative #AI allows traffickers to cross language barriers, create deepfakes, and scale their operations. Read the joint paper of @osce_cthb and @baliprocessrso 👉 https://t.co/FHjXPFkO2n

[Cezary Podkul @Cezary]

Grateful to be at ⁦@FCCThai⁩ for this discussion with ⁦@baliprocessrso⁩ about how #AI is being deployed to help Southeast Asia’s scam compounds automate and enhance their operations. “The golden age of crime” is already here, ⁦@jdanielsims⁩ points out.

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

🚨The launch event for the @osce_cthb & RSO Policy Brief on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Trafficking in Persons is this Friday!

Register today: https://t.co/Q3mZGb2V3o (or scan the QR code below)

[Bali Process Regional Support Office (RSO) @baliprocessrso]

How is the rise of #AI amplifying the reach of organised criminal networks and increasing the complexity of responding to trafficking in persons? 🌍

🚨Join the launch event of the @osce_cthb & RSO's Policy Brief on the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Trafficking in Persons to learn more about the intersection of AI and transnational crime, and potential implications on trafficking in persons.📄

Event details:
📅 Friday, 1 November 2024
🕘 09:00-12:00 CET | 14:00-17:00 ICT
🔗Register today and be part of the discussion: https://t.co/Q3mZGb2V3o (or scan the QR code below)

[Ryan Winch @winchry]

Productive talks @TikTok today on partnership opportunities & addressing #HumanTrafficking on #SocialMedia, esp. recruitment into scam centres

Looking forward to working together to engage #LawEnforcement on online investigations, improve public-private information sharing

[CamboJA News (ខេមបូចា ព័ត៌មាន) @cambojanews]

Mech Dara, a journalist, was released on bail from Kandal provincial prison on Thursday at 12 noon, after his apology last night to Senate president Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet. (CamboJA/Pring Samrang)