Myanmar’s military involved in cyber-slavery
A report by the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) titled "Trapped in Hell" notes that people have ended up enslaved after losing their job and seeing their education disrupted by the 2021 military coup. It cites detailed stories of junta-linked militias in the northeastern Shan State protecting Chinese criminal gangs engaged in cybersex trafficking and exploitation.
Yangon (AsiaNews) – A new report by the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) titled "Trapped in Hell" paints a very disturbing picture of "new slaves", ensnared in online scams in Myanmar, in an “industry” based on deception, corruption and violence, often involving Chinese criminal gangs that operate with the tacit approval and complicity of local authorities.
Based on several interviews with victims, the SHRF's research shows how some people in Myanmar – particularly when they were unable to pursue an education or find employment following the military coup in February 2021 – have increasingly fallen prey to online scams, gambling, or blackmailed into pornography, especially in the Kokang and Wa regions in the northeastern Shan state.
“The past few years have seen a surge in this type of illegal activity,’” reads the SHRF report, “particularly in and around Southeast Asia’s Mekong region, as Covid-19 pandemic restrictions drove illegal gambling operations online, fuelled economic insecurity, and created a vast pool of unemployed workers and stranded migrants for organised crime groups to exploit.
“Under the guise of lucrative job offers, desperate people were lured into enslavement in countries like Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines and forced to conduct cyber scams while being subjected to harassment, abuse, violence, and torture.”
A recent report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) highlighted the scale of the issue, noting that “hundreds of thousands of people from across the [Southeast Asian] region and beyond have been forcibly engaged in online criminality.”
Many of the victims in Myanmar that SHRF spoke to, however, said that forced labour was not limited to cyber scams alone.
One individual, for example, was forced to provide sexual services to members of a Chinese gang working at a company that provided technical support services for online scam operations in Panghsang, a border town in the far east of Myanmar's Shan State.
A woman in the same city was repeatedly raped and forced to take part in pornographic photos and videos that were posted online, after she was accused of stealing money from her employer.
In both cases, failure to cooperate resulted in physical abuse and torture.
“Multiple overlapping anecdotes tell of how the guards beat the trafficking victims with wires, belts, and batons, and in several cases gave them electric shocks,” the SHRF report says.
Sein Sein said that she and her sister Nu Nu (not real names) were held at a hotel that was also used as an online scamming centre, guarded by uniformed members of the Kokang Militia Force (KMF), a local militia set up and armed by the junta to help maintain control of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in Shan State.
The SHRF report notes that members of this armed group saw Nu Nu’ commit suicide by jumping from the fourth floor, and were present when staff came to collect and dispose of her body, after which the staff threatened her sister, Sein Sein, at gunpoint not to mention the incident to anyone.
“The harrowing testimonies in this report give just a small glimpse into the widespread abuse being inflicted on countless victims from Burma and other countries enslaved by criminal gangs,” especially Chinese, who are in control with the support of the local military and police.
Ultimately, the SHRF report urges “the relevant authorities to crack down on the criminal gangs operating in their territories and to hold them to account for the abuse inflicted on their enslaved victims.”
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