The Interior Ministry published footage from the raid on a group of nine Taiwanese criminals who kept four dozen of their compatriots in slave-like conditions in Macedonia.

The scheme involved duping young Taiwanese with the promise of work in call-centers abroad. When they would arrive in Macedonia, the people had their passports and phones taken away, and were kept in two locations as well as in a hotel. There, they were forced to work long hours without being given any pay and often beaten when they wouldn’t perform well. The work consisted of impersonating police officers and judges while calling citizens in Taiwan, trying to fool them to pay money to avoid made up crimes.

 

Interpol helped Taiwanese authorities in breaking up the criminal gang. The victims were kept in two locations in the Bardovci suburb near Skopje. A total of 39 Taiwanese citizens were rescued from the group.