Cambodia was the main foreign destination for Brazilian victims of human trafficking identified by Brazil's government in 2025, according to single-source reporting from Estadão based on data from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP).
Of 84 Brazilian victims identified last year through the government's assistance protocol, 44 were taken to the Southeast Asian country. The main purpose was forced labor in so-called scam centers, where victims are coerced into carrying out online fraud.
A Shifting Route
Brazilian officials told Estadão that other countries in the region had appeared as centers of this type of crime until 2024. The concentration of cases in Cambodia may be linked to police operations in 2024 and 2025 that targeted scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines and Malaysia, pushing criminal networks to adapt.
Cambodia's government did not respond to Estadão before publication. Brazil opened an embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, in August 2025, increasing consular capacity and contributing to a rise in identified cases in the second half of the year. Before that, many cases were handled by Brazil's embassy in Thailand.
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry, known as Itamaraty, later prepared guidance with the MJSP and the Federal Public Defender's Office to help Brazilians recognize risks and seek repatriation in emergencies.
How Victims Are Recruited
The scam-center trafficking route tends to target young Brazilians with interest or skills in information technology. Recruiters usually approach victims through social media, offering false jobs at supposed technology companies or call centers, with competitive pay, few requirements, commissions, flights and accommodation.
Marina Bernardes, the MJSP official who coordinates Brazil's anti-trafficking and migrant-smuggling policy, told Estadão that trafficking linked to scam centers is a new and difficult phenomenon for authorities. She cited the rapid movement of operations and the constant renewal of fraud schemes as major challenges.
According to Estadão, Brazilian authorities have also recorded cases in which people already trapped under forced labor conditions were pressured to recruit others. In May, Brazil's Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) charged three Brazilians and one Chinese national in São Paulo with international human trafficking for slave-like labor and criminal organization. Prosecutors said the group recruited and took at least 17 people to Cambodia in 2022.
Victims were allegedly forced to work long hours applying financial scams against other Brazilians online. Reports cited by Estadão include physical violence, electric shocks and punishments used to enforce targets.
Wider Trafficking Patterns
The MJSP report, prepared with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), says almost all identified victims of international trafficking whose age was known in 2025 were young adults between 19 and 35. Women represented 55% of identified victims, or 46 people, while men accounted for 45%, or 38 people.
The report warns that the data show only a partial view of the crime, because they cover victims who reached a public institution. Human trafficking remains underreported because of its clandestine nature and the barriers victims face when seeking protection.
Estadão also cited Interpol findings that artificial intelligence is increasingly used in trafficking cases linked to scam centers, including fake job offers and deepfake material for sextortion and romance scams. Interpol has said trafficking routes to scam centers often overlap with routes used for drugs, weapons and wildlife trafficking.
The Justice Ministry report also identified a sharp rise in cases of sexual exploitation, from 8 to 34 records. Bernardes said Europe remains the main destination in those cases, with Italy and Belgium among the principal hubs for Brazilian victims.
While forced labor in scam centers has become a growing threat, Brazilian authorities say international sexual exploitation remains a longstanding trafficking route. Within Brazil's broader trafficking data, including domestic cases, sexual exploitation was the leading purpose in cases investigated by the Federal Police in 2025.