Inside Myanmar's online jobs scam centres where many Kenyans have been trapped
The stories of how the victims fall prey to their traffickers mirror those given by those who get trafficked elsewhere on tourist visas.
For the last two years, tens of Kenyans rescued from the hands of juntas in Myanmar have confessed to having been lured to the country through promises of jobs in Thailand.
Upon arrival in Bangkok, they would get handed to criminals who would cross them over the Moei River into the online scam industries operated by Myanmar juntas through forced labour offered by thousands of victims of human trafficking.
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The stories of how the victims fall prey to their traffickers mirror those given by those who get trafficked elsewhere on tourist visas, only to end up in the hands of criminals who force them into forced labour.
However, in this case, they are handed to armed gangs that are currently cashing in on the breakdown of law enforcement and lack of state control in the country following the civil war that erupted in February 2021.
While most cyber scam compounds run by non-state armed groups proliferated in Myanmar since the Covid-19 pandemic along the border enclaves, the report indicates that they are moving to new areas of the country, away from the borderlands, as they adapt their operations to the changing dynamics in the country.
A new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC) delves into these criminal activities for the first time, making their operations known and revealing how they are intertwined with the country’s political structures and conflict dynamics.
According to the report, the armed gangs behind the scam compounds who target victims worldwide, enjoy protection by powerful actors inside Myanmar, making any kind of intervention complex.
According to the document, the influence of human trafficking markets in Myanmar remarkably increased since the 2021 coup, with the country’s Organised Crime Index score for this indicator having climbed to 8.50 in 2023, up 2.0 points from 2021.
That year, their growth led to an Interpol global warning of a “serious and imminent threat to public safety” which attracted the response of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States who imposed sanctions on individuals and entities for their involvement in the scam compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Countries within its neighbourhood took an interventionist approach in response to the growing phenomenon of cyber scamming and forced criminality along the China-Myanmar border targeting Chinese citizens in 2023 as Thailand went for cutting off internet access in border regions and power supplies to Myanmar border towns, the impact of which has been minimal as the criminal activities are still taking place.
The UN estimates that as many as 120,000 people may be working in Myanmar scam centres against their will, targeting victims through fake investment schemes or romance scams online.
Challenges returning home
Several countries are now making efforts to have their citizens rescued and returned home but are facing challenges as authorities in Thailand are refusing to let those freed to cross over from Myanmar until their home countries have arranged flights for them to leave due to the surge in numbers.
It is for such reasons that the Kenyan Ambassador to Thailand Kiptiness Lindsay Kimwole last week said Kenya still has over 100 Kenyans stuck in the hands of armed gangs.
Like other freed victims, these ones are also reportedly held in overcrowded, unhygienic scam compounds controlled by armed militias.
Kimwole, however, assured the public that the Kenyan government is working tirelessly to ensure the safe return of its citizens.
“The government is working round the clock to bring the Kenyans home,” he assured.
On Monday, 280 Indians were flown home through Thailand after they were freed from scam centres in Myanmar last week.
Heroin and synthetic drugs
Other than online scams, other criminal activities in the mix include heroin and synthetic drugs trade as Myanmar remains one of the world’s largest producers of methamphetamine and opium, with trafficking networks extending across Thailand, China, India and Laos.
“These illicit revenues fuel both the military government and ethnic armed groups, ensuring that drug production remains a central driver of conflict. Without alternative economic opportunities for communities dependent on opium cultivation, efforts to dismantle the trade will be met with resistance,” the report titled “Cashing in on conflict; Illicit economies and the Myanmar civil war” shows.
It adds that trading in the vast natural resources in the country including gold, timber, jade rubies and an array of rare-earth minerals as fuel to the conflict in the country as its profits are used by both the local army and ethnic resistance groups to fund the civil war.
Funding armed groups
For decades, therefore, criminal markets have not only funded armed groups but also shaped power balances at local, regional, and national levels.
“This interdependence means that actors engaged in these illicit networks could become key players in any future peace settlement, raising concerns about how crime and governance might continue to overlap,” notes the report.
It then recommends that for Myanmar to move towards sustainable peace and national identity, there is a need to address these illicit economies, especially since they are a prominent feature in the armed forces’ divide-and-rule strategy.
“Past ceasefires and peace agreements have largely failed to address the role of illicit economies, treating them as bargaining chips rather than tackling their long-term consequences. As Myanmar moves towards an uncertain future, any viable political resolution must confront the influence of organised crime. Without targeted policies to disrupt illicit markets and provide alternative economic solutions, Myanmar risks repeating the cycles of instability that have defined its history,” the report says.
The state of the illicit economies in Myanmar and the roles of those involved are particularly complex.
“The current situation builds upon the decades-long insurgencies that have led to complex political economies across the country, most notably in the conflict-affected borderlands. Past efforts of conflict de-escalation, as seen with the ceasefires of the 1990s, directly supported – and more deeply embedded- illicit economies within regional political structures, a process known as ‘ceasefire capitalism’,” notes the report.
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