The crisis has exacerbated since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, which fractured state control and turned border regions into lawless hubs of organised crime.
Alleged scam center workers and victims from China arrive at the border checkpoint with Thailand in Myawaddy, Myanmar, on February 20.
London: In recent years, scores of young Indians from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu have fallen prey to sophisticated job scams that promise lucrative employment opportunities abroad. Enticed by adverts of high paying tech and customer service roles in Southeast Asia, many instead find themselves trapped in cyber scam compounds, particularly in Myanmar.
These modern day slavery networks, often Chinese led criminal syndicates, coerce victims into conducting global online fraud, from crypto scams to digital extortion. The crisis has exacerbated since Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, which fractured state control and turned border regions into lawless hubs of organised crime.
Over 1,600 Indians have already been rescued by the Indian government, yet porous borders, weak enforcement, and geopolitical instability continue to feed this humanitarian tragedy. This piece aims to dissect the mechanics of the recruitment traps, the geopolitical forces enabling them, and policy pathways India must adopt to protect its citizens.
LURE OF FALSE PROMISES
The chain begins in small Indian towns, where unemployment and digital aspiration create fertile ground for deception. Recruiters exploit social media platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook, posting ads that dangle Rs 50,000-Rs 1 lakh monthly salary for data entry or customer support roles in Thailand. These agencies which are often unregistered consultancies, charge Rs 2-5 lakh as placement fees. Once abroad, victims are stripped of their passports and trafficked across the porous Thai-Myanmar borders into compounds like KK Park or Shwe Kokko (which was recently covered by BBC as the “city built on scams”), controlled by Chinese syndicates in collusion with local militias.
Inside, victims endure 12-16-hour shifts operating digital fraud of investment scams, romance cons and crypto hustles. A 2024 UN report estimates that 300,000 people, including 5,000+ Indians, are enslaved in such scam operations, generating billions of dollars annually. The victims are mostly semi-skilled graduates aged 20-30 years, desperate for economic progress in an economy where youth unemployment hovers near 8%.
GEOPOLITICAL WEB
The roots of this cyberslavery lie in the evolution of transnational Chinese crime syndicates. In the early 2010s, crackdowns on gambling and crypto in mainland China drove these networks offshore, to Cambodia’s Sihanoukville, Laos’s Golden Triangle SEZ and Myanmar’s border zones, where weak governance allowed criminal economies to flourish. The Covid-19 pandemic intensified this shift where border closures stranded workers, pushing many into illegal online labour.
Following Myanmar’s 2021 coup, the military junta’s collapse of authority created an ideal ecosystem. Border enclaves like Myawaddy and Shan State became no-man’s lands, where militias, human traffickers, and scam lords coexist under the junta’s tacit patronage.
For India, the 1,642 km porous border with Myanmar through Manipur and Mizoram has become a dual crisis zone, fuelling trafficking, insurgency financing, and refugee flows. A 2024 US sanctions list names figures like Saw Chit Thu, head of the Karen Border Guard Force, who allegedly shields scam compounds in exchange for revenue cuts. These scams now form part of Myanmar’s shadow war economy.
MYANMAR’S INSTITUTIONAL PARALYSIS
Under General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta remains structurally incapable of reform. Its dependence on Border Guard Forces (BGFs) for territorial control ties its survival to these criminal fiefdoms. Militias like the Karen BGF not only tax scam compounds but also profit from money laundering, illicit trade and trafficking routes that sustain the junta’s parallel economy.
Even occasional crackdowns, such as the one carried out in October 2025 raid on KK Park, achieve little beyond symbolic optics. The US Institute of Peace (USIP) observes, such operations “merely displace, not dismantle” networks, which quickly relocate using smuggled Starlink internet systems.
INDIA’S RESPONSE: GAPS AND IMPERATIVES
India’s current approach remains reactive, focused on rescue and repatriation rather than prevention. To stem this modern slavery, Government of India must adopt a response anchored in digital vigilance, regulation and awareness. Both the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) should start adapting AI-driven tools to detect fraudulent job postings on social media. Formulation of a central alert portal should allow citizens to verify overseas job offers through embassy databases. What would further act as a tool of effective deterrence is to eventually enact stricter laws to prosecute unregistered recruitment agents and consultancies acting as trafficking agents.
In addition, Central government agencies must collaborate and partner with state governments to launch campaigns featuring first hand testimonies of rescued victims, along with influencers, YouTubers and media to spread awareness of these digital slavery traps. Airports should introduce pre departure counselling and secondary screening for solo travellers headed to Thailand or Cambodia. Training must be provided to immigration officers to identify red flags where young travellers with suspicious itineraries or mismatched job profiles can be prevented from travelling. The Philippines’ crackdown on POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator) scams offers a tested blueprint for deterrence.
CONCLUSION
The cyber scam syndicates operating across Southeast Asia represent a dark nexus of digital exploitation, organized crime and geopolitical disorder. For India, this is not merely a consular challenge but a national security and humanitarian imperative.
As External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar emphasized at ASEAN forums, the Global South must speak with one voice against emerging digital slavery. India, with its digital capacity and moral capital, must lead that front, protecting its citizens not just through rescue, but through foresight and deterrence.
