Asian governments battle human trafficking by scam centers

Ethnic militias in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have freed thousands of forced laborers from scam centers in the country this month. Following last month’s high-profile case of a kidnapped Chinese actor, China, Thailand, and Myanmar have ramped up efforts to shut down the compounds. But officials in Thailand, which borders Myanmar, say they don’t have the resources to support rescued scam workers, and experts warn that human traffickers will look for other victims.

“There are so many victims involved—the people being scammed out of money and the people that have been forced to [scam] essentially with a gun to their head,” said Andrew Wasuwongse, International Justice Mission’s country director in Thailand. “Trafficking into forced scamming is one of the most complex and fastest growing forms of modern slavery in the world today.”

According to a 2023 United Nations report, criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people, trapping them in compounds that have proliferated in Southeast Asia to work in online fraud schemes. The cyberscams, typically involving fake romance and bogus investments, generate billions of dollars in annual revenue. The operations are often protected by corrupt officials and armed groups. Recently freed captives, including many who say they endured torture, are from more than two dozen countries predominantly in Asia and Africa, including Vietnam, India, and Kenya.

Myanmar is still in the grip of a civil war that broke out after a military coup in 2021. More than 7,000 foreign nationals from scam centers in the country are waiting to go home. Two militias, Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), also known as Karen National Army, and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) are holding them at the border with Thailand, which has refused to receive them.

Thai authorities say their country, which took in nearly 260 foreign human trafficking victims released by the DKBA from Myanmar’s scam compounds earlier this month, lacks the capacity to accept more unless the foreigners’ embassies repatriate them. China has brought back more than 600 of its citizens, but more than 4,800 Chinese are in the group waiting to return home from Myanmar.

Officials have revealed little about how they rescued Chinese actor Wang Xing from traffickers last month, but Thai authorities arrested 10 Chinese nationals for their suspected connection with Wang’s abduction from Thailand to a compound in Myanmar.

Following his release, Wang said in a video that captors kept him with at least 50 others in a building, shaved their heads, and coerced them to undergo training to work in fraud schemes. Like many other victims, Wang was lured to Southeast Asia by the false promise of a good job opportunity. He traveled to Thailand for what he believed was a movie casting call. When his girlfriend lost contact with him, she posted about his disappearance on social media, attracting tremendous attention in China.

As part of efforts to clamp down on Myanmar’s scam centers, Thailand has cut off power, internet, and gas supplies to five towns along the Thai border. Trafficking victims, traffickers, and willing scam operators often travel through Thailand to enter Myanmar, Wasuwongse with International Justice Mission told WORLD. Sometimes criminals pretend to be government or airport staff at airports and direct victims to a vehicle that takes them to the border, said Wasuwongse. He thinks Thailand needs to tighten security at its airports and checkpoints into the western Thai town of Mae Sot at the border.

“The key will be Thailand maintaining those cuts … until these scam compounds are choked off,” Wasuwongse said. IJM’s work in Thailand includes assisting the government in identifying human trafficking victims, providing interpreters to help officials interview victims who don’t speak Thai, and supporting authorities who prosecute suspects in connection for trafficking and forced scamming.

Online scam operators are increasingly targeting people in the United States, Latin America, and Europe with schemes such as sham cryptocurrency investments, Wasuwongse said. He believes operators may be shifting away from targeting people in Asia due to pressure from China and criminal gangs expanding their markets.

“Our neighbors from around the world … are ending up in these horrific situations of abuse,” Wasuwongse said. “We have to open our eyes and respond.”