Thailand urged to rescue trafficking victims trapped in Myanmar

An advocacy group urged Thailand’s government to help secure the urgent release of more than 100 victims of human trafficking from countries including Laos, saying a “Chinese mafia syndicate” has forced them to work in Myanmar’s Kayin state.

As many as 110 people from nine countries, including 19 from Laos, are “trapped in the areas controlled by the DKBA and BGF in Myanmar”, the Thailand-based Civil Society Network for Victim Assistance in Human Trafficking said in the Oct. 24 open letter to Thai prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, which the group shared with Radio Free Asia.

The DKBA, or Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, is a splinter group of Myanmar’s Karen National Union ethnic minority guerrilla force. The BGF is a junta-organized Border Guard Force largely recruited from the DKBA.

The generally pro-junta DKBA and BGF have been allowed to develop extensive businesses in Myanmar, opposite the Thai border town of Mae Sot, including casinos and online scam centers. “Given Thailand’s recent election to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for 2025-2027, this is a critical moment for the country to actively support humanitarian rescue operations for the victims and coordinate efforts to combat human trafficking along the Thai-Myanmar border,” the group said.

“The Chinese mafia syndicate specifically exploits the Mae Sot district as a transit hub for trafficking victims from various countries into Myanmar, taking advantage of the shared border along the Moei River,” the group said.

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The scam operations thrive on the labor of people tricked into thinking they’ve landed legitimate jobs but forced to adopt false identities online in what has become known as “pig-butchering,” forming relationships with victims then tricking them into investing in fake schemes.

The Chinese groups operating the casinos and scam centers are believed to share profits with the Myanmar junta and its ethnic minority militia allies.

A Thai government spokesperson told RFA on Monday he could not immediately comment on the matter.

The welfare group said the Laotians were trapped at Yongquian, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of the Myanmar town of Myawaddy, which is across a border river from Mae Sot.

Fifty-five Filipinos, 13 Bangladeshis, 10 Ethiopians, seven Pakistanis, three Kenyans, one Kazakh, and one Uzbek as well as one Moroccan are trapped in the area controlled by the DKBA and BGF, the group said.

The scam center operators often confiscate the passports of those lured by job offers, for “visa processing,” and then demand payment for travel and living expenses. Victims can be detained and assaulted, rights investigators say.

“Their phones were confiscated, and they were forced into debt bondage, face labor exploitation, severe physical abuse, and were held ransom,” the group said.

According to a United States Institute of Peace report in May, as of the end of 2023, criminal groups in Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, have conned victims out of about US$64 billion a year.

The Thai government has a policy of not getting involved in Myanmar’s conflicts but says it will cooperate with neighbors to fight cross-border crime.

Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.