In the five months since she escaped a scam compound, Anna has mostly been living on the streets. 

WARNING: The story contains references to sexual and physical violence.

The Ugandan mother had been a captive for seven months, during which she said she was tortured with electricity because she didn't know how to use computers, let alone scam people online.

"I kept on blaming the day I came to Cambodia," she told the ABC.

But her nightmare did not end when the compound's gates were opened and she was allowed to leave.  

Anna was one of the many trafficking victims who were left stranded amid an unprecedented crackdown on Cambodia's cyberscam industry.

She and other victims who spoke to the ABC used pseudonyms because they feared for their safety.

For years, scam operations — typically run by Chinese criminal organisations out of fortified compounds, casinos or office buildings — have proliferated in the South-East Asian kingdom.

The Cambodian government was often accused of being complicit in the industry and of conducting crackdowns that were just "performative".

But over the past year, amid growing international pressure, the authorities appear to have been taking the issue increasingly seriously, with more expansive raids and several top kingpins arrested and deported to China.

In January, there was a "mass exodus" from the compounds, which routinely employ what's called "scam slavery".

Cambodian Ministry of Interior spokesman Touch Sokhan told the ABC the scam crackdown had "achieved remarkable results".

"As a result, we are able to save those who work in scams on online sites, both fraud and deception, both manipulation and threats," he said.

"Tens of thousands" had been "rescued and sent to their home countries", he said. 

"This practice is done with the utmost care in accordance with the law and has good cooperation with their own countries."

However, human rights organisations and observers say it's a continuing humanitarian crisis, with little support available for many of the victims or help to get them back home.

Out of the compound and on the streets

Anna, who has a seven-year-old son at home, said that like many who found themselves in Cambodia's scam operations she was following an offer of legitimate work. 

She was expecting to be working in a five-star hotel for $US900 ($1,279) a month.

Instead, she was held in a huge compound in Mondulkiri Province on the border with Vietnam and made to join a team running a "job scam" operation targeting Americans and Canadians.

She had been told by the agent who lined up the job interview to say she had experience with computers.

"They used to torture me every day after work, because I didn't know how to do the job," she said. "They had to torture me so that I can learn."

In January, the compound "boss" opened the gates and freed the workers, apparently after receiving a tip-off that the place was going to be raided.

"He [gave us] our passports and told us to get our own way, because the police were trying to catch us," she said.

Anna travelled to the capital Phnom Penh with a group of other Ugandan women but was left on her own after they managed to get flights home.

She had no family back home who could send her money.

"That's when my suffering started, because I couldn't survive alone," she said. "I couldn't pay for a room or a hotel alone.

"And many, many people, when it comes to night, they harass you with sex.

"It has not been easy for me."

Sometimes a good Samaritan would give her food or she would meet fellow Ugandans who let her stay with them.

"But when they get money to go home, then I become again homeless," she said.

"That's how I've been suffering.

"Life has not been good for me at all."

'They are desperate'

Ivan Franceschini is a co-founder of a non-government organisation EOS Collective, which investigates the criminal networks involved in the online scam industry and supports those trafficked into scam operations.

Dr Franceschini, who also works with the University of Melbourne, said the number of people from African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Rwanda, who had been caught up in the crackdown numbered at least in the thousands with hundreds still stranded unable to get home.

About 10 per cent to 15 per cent were women, he said.

While many of those released from the compounds were from Asia, he said the Africans were the most vulnerable because their countries were so far away and none had embassies in Cambodia.

"They are desperate," he said. "They're coming from really poor socio-economic backgrounds. They're young. They have children back home, most of them. And then the only way home for them is to buy a flight."

Aid assistance has been limited, with the only official shelter in the country having space for about 100 people.

Dr Franceschini said African governments were negotiating with the Cambodian government to secure waivers for visa overstaying fines and some NGOs and international agencies were providing limited medical and food assistance and occasionally help with flights.

"But the assistance has been sparse, uncoordinated, and wholly inadequate given the scale of the crisis," he said.

He said one woman who had been sleeping under a bridge in Phnom Penh had been raped, while other women had reported being forced to exchange sexual favours for shelter.

"We had people coming to Phnom Penh and living in a bus station in Phnom Penh for several days," he said.

"They were living off water bottles left behind by travellers."

He said many were suffering from malnutrition.

"We have a lot of people with health issues because they didn't have proper food for long stretches of time," he said.

"So that's why I call it a humanitarian crisis. It is dramatic and nobody's paying attention."

As part of its crackdown, the Cambodian government in January brought in fines of $1,000 for property owners who shelter people without valid visas.

The measure was intended to stop smaller scamming teams operating out of residential homes, guest houses or hotels.

However, it's made it even harder for the trafficking victims to find somewhere to stay, Dr Franceschini said.

"Very few people are willing to take the risk. And even those who have taken the risk right now, they are being raided," he said.

Many trafficking victims had been arrested by the authorities for not having a valid visa and put into detention centres — including a former scam compound.

"And so you have people, victims of human trafficking, with very little money left, who are getting either arrested and put in detention, or they're getting turned on the street," he said.

'It was a bad experience'

Sahr, a 23-year-old from Sierre Leone, told the ABC he was excited to be travelling overseas for the first time after a friend told him about a work opportunity in Vietnam.

But after he arrived in September 2024 he was taken across the border to Cambodia to a scam compound in coastal Kampot province.

He never knew for sure whether the scams were successful, he said.

"If the client [pays] money, [the bosses] go silent. If the client don't put money, they beat you up, they give you punishment.

"It was just terrible. You will work like 16 hours. No good food, no sleep. Just terrible experience."

In January, the security guards opened the gates at his compound, he said.

For the first few weeks he had enough money to stay in a guest house, he said, but since then he had been sleeping on the streets.

He said whenever he saw the police he would run because he didn't have a proper visa.

Sometimes he would wait outside Indian restaurants and ask customers to share their food, but he often went to sleep hungry.

At one point, he was so sick he started coughing and vomiting up blood.

Angela, a 25-year-old from Kenya, said she came to Cambodia in January thinking she was going to be working in customer service and initially refused when asked to scam people from her own country.

The bosses threatened to bury her alive, she said.

She was taken out into the bush and shown a freshly dug hole and shocked with electricity until she agreed to do what she was told.

Angela said she only ended up spending a few days in the compound before it was shut down.

She made her way to Phnom Penh and has been able to stay with friends between stints living on the street — mostly under bridges.

"It was just in and out, in and out, in and out," she said.

Heading home

Ivan Franceschini's NGO has provided help such as flights home for more than 100 trafficking victims, including Anna, Angela and Sahr.

But he said there were only so many people they could help and more were still stranded.

Anna said that when she met Dr Franceschini she was suffering from malnutrition.

"I thank Ivan," she said.

"They gave me some nutrition. They gave me vitamins and medicine to treat myself. Now I'm starting to be better."

When she gets home, it will be the first time for her to see her seven-year-old son in more than a year.

Sahr said he was excited to be going home.

"I'm so happy. Even though I have nothing back home, but I'm so glad I'm going back to my country. It was bad being here. I was here with no hope again, no hope."

Angela said she was also looking forward to heading home to see her family and hoped to start fresh with a new job.

"I know in life that no matter what, we fall and stand up again," she said.