A Moroccan court has handed down a five-year prison sentence and imposed a fine of $107,300 on a man convicted of human trafficking, the country’s first ruling involving the recruitment of citizens for forced labor in online scam compounds in Asia.
The defendant, Nabil Moafik, was found guilty of luring young Moroccans through fake job advertisements that promised lucrative call-centre positions in Thailand. Instead, the victims were trafficked to Myanmar, more than 9,300 miles (14,966 kilometers) from home, where they were forced to work under brutal conditions facilitating online fraud schemes.
Moafik denied all charges, telling the court that he considered human trafficking “a crime against humanity” and insisted he would never engage in such acts.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 120,000 people are currently trapped in “scam compounds” across Asia, where victims are coerced into participating in cyber fraud. Global efforts, including in Morocco, have intensified to prosecute those involved in such cross-border crimes.
During the trial in Casablanca, victims testified that they endured torture, beatings, and other forms of inhumane treatment while detained in the Myanmar facilities. Some said they had to pay ransoms in cryptocurrency to secure their release, as revealed in court documents reviewed by attorneys.
Prosecutors said Moafik operated a Facebook group aimed at assisting Moroccan migrants living in Turkey, which he allegedly used to post fraudulent job offers. One victim, Youssef Amzouz, responded to the ad and was connected with another Moroccan recruiter who arranged an interview and collected money for a plane ticket to Malaysia.
Court documents revealed that after arriving in Southeast Asia, Amzouz was handed over to traffickers and later told by another Moroccan contact that he must either pay a ransom or recruit 100 new victims to regain his freedom.
Moafik, defending himself, claimed he acted only as a job mediator, saying:
“I was just a job mediator. I was getting between $21 and $107 for each person I recruited. I did not know that all of this would happen.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency, has noted that intermediaries are sometimes unaware they are part of trafficking operations, complicating efforts to secure convictions in transnational cases.
However, the state prosecutor dismissed Moafik’s defense, asserting that he had a clear intent to profit from his actions, describing him as “an essential element in the crime of human trafficking.”
Earlier this year, Moroccan news outlet Hespress reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs helped secure the release of 34 Moroccan nationals who had been trafficked to scam compounds in Myanmar. The ministry did not respond to The Associated Press’s inquiries about how many citizens remain affected.
The ruling marks a significant legal milestone in Morocco’s fight against human trafficking and digital fraud networks operating across borders.
