🇵🇭 Philippines raids scam compounds

Philippine authorities arrested 244 foreign workers in raids on two suspected illegal online gaming sites in Mindanao on Oct 2, in the country’s largest crackdown of 2026. The immigration bureau said the operation targeted banned POGO-linked activity, with detainees including mostly Chinese nationals as well as Cambodians, Malaysians, Indonesians, Myanmar citizens and one Hong Kong resident. Large quantities of computers, mobile phones, laptops and SIM cards were seized.

Manila banned Philippine offshore gaming operators, or POGOs, in 2024, citing their use by organised crime networks as cover for human trafficking, money laundering, online fraud, kidnappings and murder. The latest arrests indicate continued enforcement against dispersed scam infrastructure outside the capital, amid wider regional concern over online fraud operations staffed in some cases by trafficking victims.

The government is investigating possible human trafficking offences involving some of those arrested, while the rest are set to be deported under immigration law.

#Philippines #China

@asianomics