Myanmar’s Scam Centres

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1:15Wow. This really is kind of extraordinary. I'm standing now at a rather lovely drink spot on the banks of a river in northern Thailand. The water is flowing in front of me, the birds are singing, and I'm sipping a rather lovely drink. But you hear that generator. Well, that's giving a rather different clue about what's going on here. My name's Ed Butler, and for assignment on the documentary from the BBC World Service this week, I'm investigating what's going on inside these buildings I can see on the other side of the river. Many have bars on the windows. There are some of just dozens of such complexes in this part of Southeast Asia that are thought to be home to thousands, literally thousands, of human slaves.

2:12People trafficked from around the world who are now being forced into scamming people like you and me with fake online investment schemes. 2023 I see a WhatsApp status of my best friend's husband saying there's data entry jobs in Thailand you will get accommodation, food, everything This is Anika Boram She's a 35-year-old professional from Sri Lanka It was a good offer so I never thought they were going to scam me and send me to Myanmar Two years ago, Annika got on a plane and flew into what she now describes as a living hell. Her experiences echo those of dozens of scam survivors from around the world.

3:01She was whisked through an airport and after a long, scary and ill-explained journey, found herself gazing at a massive walled compound. It was a huge military camp. We were so scared we started crying. And then we say we want to go back home. So then they say they cannot send us home because they already spent so much money on us. For each person, they have paid$8 ,000. Instead of a job in IT, Annika was in a scam centre and she was being instructed in how to sell fake cryptocurrency investment schemes to unsuspecting victims online. They just train us how to chat to each other, pretending to be a girl named Anna.

3:55You have to build the customer's trust. So you started talking to random strangers. Who were they? Where were they from, the people you were contacting? Mostly Turkish, Russian. Later on, other countries as well. We have to teach him how to invest and take the money back. So that is the point where the customer gets scammed, actually. Who were the people in charge? Chinese people. But the military inside was Myanmar people. Did you complain? Did you try and refuse to do this work? actually we saw when people refused what happened to them you know most of the people come very healthy and pretty if they go against these chinese people within a month it's pathetic to see them some people don't have their teeth their hands are broken their legs are broken They need clutches to walk.

5:03Even the women, they come like dolls. And in one month or so, when they don't perform, you cannot even look at their faces. So we Sri Lankans, we thought of doing whatever they said. Last year, I was very lucky. He was a very old person, maybe 80 years old. I think he put more than 38 ,000 USD. I scammed him this much. He was like bankrupt and he was still trusting, telling about his sorrows and he was losing his house. It's horrible. Even now, I feel like crying. Like we didn't have any option. If we didn't do, we are getting beat. We are getting electric shock. It was really traumatic. Still, sometimes I cannot sleep in the night.

6:04I was always thinking that I would die there. We were lucky to come back. Annika did get to come back. She's one of the fortunate 8 ,000 or so who were released in the last few months, the result, it seems, of political and economic pressure being applied to the armed groups that control the territory. But a much larger number, tens of thousands of migrants from dozens of different countries, are thought to remain trapped within facilities along a narrow stretch of land close to Thailand's northwest border. It's known as Miawadi. Just in our area alone, it's estimated that over 100 ,000 people have been trafficked into the region for forced criminality, actually making it one of the largest human trafficking events in history.

6:55Judah Tanner is an Australian aid worker and activist who's trying to get the migrant workers freed. They really began building them in, say, 2022. Even at that time, no-one actually had an idea of what they were, and it wasn't until I received our first call from someone inside the scam centre that I realised the level of abuses that were taking place inside these scam centres. And the UN and other bodies are estimating billions being made. Yeah, it's always surprising when we hear just the scale. I think the latest one that I heard was something around this financial year being$60 billion plus.

7:36You're looking at over 100 ,000 people brought into a single area at just a 60-kilometre, 70-kilometre stretch of land. Because of sovereign laws, you can't have a group that even want to go in and rescue these people enter a country that doesn't allow it. They've found this particular niche area within Myanmar that's controlled by military groups. And then you've got this illegitimate government that says that they have no jurisdiction in that region. And so you get this no man's land. It's this perfect storm that has built what we know today as one of the most successful criminal enterprises in the world.

8:23the context of this is a country at war almost ever since 2021 when a military coup overthrew the democratic government there's been intense fighting throughout myanmar it's now split into a patchwork of regional ethnic factions and as judah tanner says many of them are in open-armed conflict with the ruling junta. Many, but not all.

8:54Well, I haven't been on a trip like this very often before in my life. I'm now in a remote border area of Thailand, close to Myanmar, which is our final destination tomorrow. We're hoping to go and visit people who've been abducted in scam centres. Now, To get to those centres, we have to talk to the leader of the rebel group, one of the rebel groups that controls that part of Myanmar. And that's what I'm doing today. We're going to cross a river, the Moy River, which divides Thailand and Myanmar. And we're going to go to church.

9:40The general in question is called So Shui Wah, a man with quite a fearsome reputation. He's deputy chief commander of a group called the DKBA, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army. What the head of a Buddhist army is doing leading me into a Baptist church isn't totally clear, but in we go anyway.

10:13Throughout most of the service, the general, in full military garb, surrounded by some heavily armed guards, seems either to be dozing or playing on his phone. But afterwards at his house, I did get to address the reason why I'd travelled to see him. We'd been told that he would lead us to a nearby DKBA holding camp, where hundreds of African migrants were being housed before release. We wanted to talk to these people. Seemingly, though, the general had had a change of heart and was now denying that he could help us.

10:53Why do all you journalists ask me about these scam centres? What's this to do with me? Why do they ask all these questions? So he's never had control of any of the migrants, he's saying.

11:09I don't commit any crimes. That's why journalists can come and talk to me, because I have nothing to hide. So is he really saying, yes, he does have migrants, but he doesn't want to show them to me?

11:23It's true. There are some migrant people in the DKBA area. That's Chao Cat. But I myself don't have any interest in scam centres. So please don't ask me. Please now, stop the recording. And that was that.

11:42The DKBA has been participating in the recent efforts to get people released from scam centres. But insiders say that along with other local factions, it's also actively profiting from the scams.

12:00We're back in Mae Sot now, a border town inside Thailand and this phone call is between a local former scam worker her name is Tai Su Lang and a telephone recruiter one of the many openly placing ads to hire new scam workers from the Myanmar community There's good money to be made, he tells her basic salary around$500 a month After the call, Lange tells me they don't mistreat Myanmar workers inside the scam centres like they do the foreigners. Even when foreign migrants manage to escape those places and swim across to Thailand, she says, corrupt Thai police officers will sometimes seize them and sell them back to the gangs.

12:47I heard similar stories of corruption and collusion by Thai police from the chair of Thailand's own Parliamentary Committee on Border Affairs, the opposition MP Rang Siman Rhoam. Thailand is like a transportation hub to the scam compound. And because we can see that the corruption in Thailand is very high, the Chinese mafia take people to cross to the river. Goldman, they know about this business, but they don't do anything. They know where the crossing points are? Yes, yes, they know. But because of the corruption, no one takes any responsibility about this. I put these claims of police corruption to the officer in charge of the scam issue.

13:29He's the police general, Thachai Pitanilabud. I don't have that kind of information, but I will tell you, when we have some evidence or any clue about police corruption, We will do investigation. We do. I will do investigation myself. Because I was hearing that some police officers are lobbying their bosses to get transferred to Maysok because it's such a lucrative position to be in, to be a police officer. Do you... That's not true? No, I don't think so. No. Right now, nobody would like to work over there. Do you know the gangs operating these scam centres, the ones in Myanmar? Do you know who they are, the individuals?

14:15Yeah, absolutely. I think everyone knows. The majority is the Chinese gang. So you know the individuals who are running these places. What are you doing to catch them? Yeah, we arrest some of them already. Some of them have been in jail in Thailand. Some of them have been back to China. We work together with Chinese authorities. So you're doing plenty, you think, to stop the traffic of migrants? Absolutely, absolutely. Because there are critics who say there have been stories of migrants arriving at the airport here who are just being processed through, stuck on buses and carried off, and that there are corrupt officials stamping their passport, giving them visas.

14:58They all lie. We prove it. We already prove it. We do investigation. I don't see any single case. People being forced in Bangkok or in Thailand at all. But when they were there, it's another story. Then they are tortured and mistreated. Could be, could be. It could be false criminality. This is the thing that I'm so concerned about. You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

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16:40This is Ed Butler on assignment in Maesot on the Thai border with Myanmar. And back in my hotel room, I'm now watching a video. I should say some may find the following accounts distressing. OK, we're driving in a car in this video and I can see men bent on the ground. They're stripped to the waist, many of them. What's happening with these men? They got punishment. Some people have to crawl and some people have to walk. My fixer and translator, Yi Yi Nui, is next to me. She's just introduced me to a man who we're calling Ko Ang. We're not using his real name to protect his identity. And for this broadcast, Yi is speaking his words.

17:29He's showing me often brutal videos to illustrate the levels of punishment that he says are routinely handed out.

17:42They torture as much as they can, but not to die. If a victim dies, it's more cost. For this programme, Ong wishes to be described simply as a concerned Myanmar citizen. But he's clearly had high-level access to Chao Kat, the scam centre that General So Shui Wah claimed to have nothing to do with. It's arranged by Chinese boss or mafia gangs and the KBA. They take their percentage tax for everything, 50%, together with BGF2. So the DKBA, this is one of the rebel groups, and the General So Shuiwa, the man I met. Have you seen So Shuiwa at these facilities? Yeah, he's seen him. renting the land is 10 million baht for one month.

18:37Chinese people have to pay to Soshua. 10 million baht, that is$30 ,000. For one month. I was hearing that they keep tigers. Is that right? He said, yes, there is two tigers inside. It might be they feed the people to tigers. You've heard of that happening? They dare to do everything, kill the people, rape the girls. And then when the dead body appears, it could be complicated with the government or something. That's why after killing the people, they can feed the tiger. They use sexual violence against the girls? Yes. They rape the girls every time, every day. Why are you telling me this? Why are you telling this story to me?

19:32That kind of crime, scamming to other people, that is happening in Myanmar. That is like a dark image of Myanmar. For the KVA and BGF, they just protect for their profits. They are not a revolutionary person. They're just doing it for business? They like money. They only want money. Some people from KNU also, they are a part of that scam centre What would happen to you if they found out you were talking to me, the media? They would kill me if they got the chance If someone touched to their profit or business, they would kill everyone

20:25Well, Ong mentioned there other local armed groups that he says are involved in the scam issue, the BGF and the KNU. Yes, I know these names can get pretty confusing, but do stick with me. The military wing of the KNU, or Karen National Union, is a leading armed force in the region. Even this month, it's been engaged in open battles with the Myanmar military in the Miyawadi area, and it's winning support from many in the West. for its declared pro-democracy ideals. I've come to meet the KNU spokesman, Paddo Sautone. The problem with the other split group from KNU, like BGF and then DKBA, they don't have any political objectives and they deeply involve in the other illicit business.

21:14It is not good for us in our territory. So you don't approve, but you're investigating five of your own leading members, are you not? for involvement with scam centres. Yes, sir, we don't involve with scam centres. But you're investigating your own members. There's an investigation going on within the KNU, is there not? Against five guys, five leading executive committee members who are accused by certain factions within the KNU of having a particular role in KK Park, a very particular scam centre here in the region. Yes, sir, we deny that. So we are not involved in this issue, KK Park or wherever.

21:57But there is a contract that's been published. It shows very specifically the signature of your own chairman signing a contract with a Chinese company to create KK Park. No, no, no, not create KK Park. At that time, we have an agreement like that, just only to have a kind of like a business for our financial problem in our organization. And then we start everything. and we put out everything, including with the given security like that. So who is running KK Park right now if it's not you? This is BJF, but what they are running we don't know. Denials. Everyone keeps saying it's not us. But as mentioned, the pressure on rebel groups from abroad this year did lead to thousands of migrants being released.

22:46So clearly the armed groups do have influence to change what's going on. Now, in this programme, we've already heard from former scam workers, but what about those still trapped inside? It's very bad, sir. I mean, no one deserves the treatment that they're getting right now. This woman's story demonstrates just how far-reaching the tragedy has become. We'll call her Maria. She's from the Philippines. and eight months ago, her sister left their home for what she thought was a well-paid job in a Thai call centre. In the months since, Maria has only received sporadic messages, many sent via other victims, which tell a harrowing tale of punishment and misery for her sister inside the Chowkat compound.

23:38We're withholding their identities to preserve her sister's safety. They are forcing to work to scam people. For 18 hours. Only limited food. And no access to clean drinking water. And if they did not do the work, they were given punishment. There were paddling, electrocution. It's really like, I cannot imagine, sir. The suffering of my sister. The last picture that I've seen her, I cannot recognize her anymore. It's really evil. Did you reach out to anyone about this? Yes, sir. As soon as we knew about the situation, we reported to the government officers who could possibly help them. But unfortunately, up until now, it seems like they cannot do much help.

24:38Tell me more about your sister. Have you heard that she's tried to harm herself? There's one person that already tried to commit suicide, sir. But they were able to see her and then ran her in the clinic. It's like you can feel in the messages sometimes she's telling us that. Just forget about her. Maybe she'll just die there. Maybe she'll not make it alive. But we always tell them, just pray and pray. Just hold on. It's really hard, sir. Like, sometimes we're already hopeless. It's been seven months. We're trying to fight for my sister to go home alive. We don't know what to do anymore.

25:37General So Shui Wah has in the past made pledges that he will do what he can to help people like this woman. We've asked for his response to this situation and to the other allegations in this programme, that he is personally profiting from scams being orchestrated on his territory, that his own DKBA soldiers are directly involved in abuses, including murder. We've not received a reply. We don't see this ending. Their margins haven't changed. The income is still the same. If you're a good business owner, you're not going anywhere. The Australian aid worker Judah Tanner doesn't see any prospect of the scam centre's closing because he says there's no concerted political effort by regional governments, especially China, to make that happen.

26:29They have enough power to have the Myanmar government, the Thai government and everyone come together in order to rescue large numbers of people out of the scam compounds. In any of the work that I do, I have not seen China come in the heavy handed nature that they could in order to crush these criminal enterprises. Because they know the individuals who are running these places. They also have connections, don't they, with the gambling operations in other parts of Southeast Asia and Macau. I mean, they are connected with some of those operations. Yeah, they are absolutely connected because somebody had to have the money to invest in these centres themselves.

27:03They spent millions of dollars. It came from the mafia that own casinos. And I fear that although we've removed 8 ,000, I know of even in the last few weeks how many hundreds of people have been brought in. So we're refilling the compounds with more victims. They're coming in from where? I mean, they're coming in through Thailand, through Bangkok? Yes, they're still using Bangkok. Indians still arriving, large numbers of Africans still arriving. I think like all criminal enterprises, if there is enough pressure and enough of a stamp down by the countries that surround these scam compounds, we will see that many of the leaders of these centres will walk away.

27:47Judah Tanner. Meanwhile, the battle just to get by each day continues for those trapped inside the camps. and for their relatives. Maria in the Philippines recently learnt that her incarcerated sister was about to be sold on with other migrants in their compound to a different gang leader. She's now afraid she could lose contact with her altogether. We don't know what's waiting for them there. If it's become worse or something, she will not be able to contact us anymore. and it's really hard, sir, mentally and physically. Sleepless night. It's like... It's like she's alive, but I couldn't do anything to save her.