Many Indonesian migrant workers would not have fallen prey to human trafficking, and all the horrors that come with it, if travel had not been made easy by the facility under the aegis of the ASEAN community project.

This is not to say that ASEAN should stop the visa-free arrangements, but it does call for ASEAN governments to work together even harder to combat online human trafficking operations that are clearly taking advantage of the visa facility for massive profits.

While we commend the Thai and Indonesian governments for their recent joint operation to free 84 Indonesians, including 70 men and 14 women, from captivity in Myawaddy, a town in southeast Myanmar, we have not seen or heard of any concerted ASEAN efforts to stem the problem at its source, that is, to stop them from leaving in the first place.

The Foreign Ministry last week revised up the number of Indonesians held captive in Myawaddy to 525 from 366, suggesting that the problem is even worse than we have all assumed. While the ministry says that all efforts are being exerted to free many more victims, getting information and data has been difficult because of the ongoing civil war in Myanmar. Some data could be gathered from relatives who have reported them missing.

Myawaddy, near the Thai border, is in the rebel Karen state which is fighting against the junta in Naypydaw. While the Myanmar government provided some help in securing the release, most of the assistance has come from Thailand, which has access through the border town of Maesot across the Moei River.

Indonesians are not the only ones falling victim to the cross-border online scams. Stories from those who fled tell of many other nationalities, including Chinese in particular, held captive in Myawaddy, but Indonesians count among the largest number.

Many were lured by offers of lucrative jobs in the tech industry they found on the internet. Typically, they would fly to Thailand where they are picked up at the airport. They would then be taken on a long drive and when they reach the destination, would have their passports confiscated. They had no idea that they had crossed the Thai border to Myanmar, more specifically to Myawaddy.

The rest is a combination of torture and being held captive in dark rooms, with little food and drink, while being forced to operate online scams targeting their compatriots back home. They would be given a quota for the number of scams they have to fulfill or they would receive even more harsh punishment. Slavery in the high-tech industry is not an irony at all.

Indonesia’s recent crackdowns against online gambling traced many of the websites back to operations in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, including Myawaddy. Other online scams include various types of financial frauds. This is a multibillion-dollar operation.

The victims of human trafficking are not the stereotypical unschooled migrant workers. Among the dozens of Indonesians recently flown home from Myawaddy are a former member of the Sukabumi legislative council in West Java. They are computer literate people but easily duped by jobs offering higher salaries than they can find at home. With the job prospects in Indonesia not very promising, many are ready to take the risk for a better life abroad.

The syndicates employ the "member gets member" strategy of recruitment, leveraging threats rather than bonuses to coerce members into deceiving friends and relatives.

Unless ASEAN governments take action, individually as well as collectively, the problem is only going to get worse. Since ASEAN’s free travel policy has enabled this problem, surely the grouping should take responsibility for ending it too, and soon.

This is not one of those policies where governments take their time, the infamous “ASEAN Way” of working on a consensus before they take actions. People’s lives and dignity are at stake.