Thousands of sick, exhausted, terrifying young men and women from countries around the world, wrapped in rows, stuffing shoulders from shoulders, surgical masks covering mouths and eyes.
Their nightmare was supposed to end.
The UN warns of “terrifyingly disturbing” activities by military and Western Burma rebels
Last month, a dramatic and highly publicized operation by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities released more than 7,000 people from Myanmar's locked compounds, where Americans and others were forced to escape from saving lives. However, the survivors once again found themselves locked up. This time, they are trapped in medical care, limited food, and overcrowded facilities where they don't know when they'll be sent home.
One young man from India said about 800 people were detained in the same facility as him and shared 10 dirty toilets. He said many people there were enthusiastic and coughing. Like all the former enslaved con artists who spoke to the Associated Press, he spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns about his safety.
“If we die here on health issues, who will be in charge?” he asked.
Armed groups holding survivors and cross-border Thai officials say they are waiting for action from the detainees' home government.
While this is one of the biggest potential rescues for forced workers in modern history, proponents say the first major effort to crack down on the cyber fraud industry has turned into a growing humanitarian crisis.
Estimates from the American Institute of Peace show that those who were released are just a small portion of the 300,000 people working in similar fraud operations throughout the region. Human rights groups and analysts add that networks that carry out these illegal fraud will continue to operate unless broader action is taken against them.
Famous crackdown
The trapped people are highly educated and fluent in English, but they found themselves trapped in a building that explains that they are forced to sit on computers for up to 16 hours a day, although initially seduced by Thailand with a lucrative office job. Refusing to work can lead to assault, starvation, and electric shock.
People in China, Vietnam and Ethiopians are believed to have been trafficked at fraud centres and forced to work at fraud centres, and are sitting with face coverings in detention after being released from the centre in eastern Myanmar's Myawazi district on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanaphon Wuttison)
“Your passport has been confiscated, you can't go outside, and everything is like hell, living hell,” the trapped Pakistani man told The Associated Press.
Cyber fraud from compounds has flourished during the pandemic and has targeted people all over the world. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime estimates that in 2023, between $18 billion and $37 billion was lost in Asia alone, minimizing government action towards the spread of the crime industry.
Beijing began urging crackdowns this year after being trafficked to Myanmar by people who had promised him an acting job in Thailand. His girlfriend led a viral social media campaign that led to his release.
Following the rescue, senior Chinese government officials visited Thailand and Myanmar, demanding that the fraud be concluded. In response, Thailand cut its power, internet and gas supply to five border towns in Myanmar.
Shortly afterwards, this part of Myanmar, the ethnic militia group that controls the Kain Border Patrol and the Democratic Kai Buddhist Army, asked some of the trapped con artists if they wanted to leave, and then escorted them from the compounds.
From forced labor to detention
As the number of freed people grew to thousands, formerly enslaved con artists were caught in indefinite detention, beyond the narrow, slowly moving river widths from freedom.
Most are held at either Army camps managed by the Kayin Border Guard Force, or at reused fraudulent compounds that many have been doing since early February.
For weeks, men and women share unsanitary conditions, sleeping on the floor and eating what the Captor offers. At one point, the border patrol said more than 7,000 people were crammed into these facilities as China began busing citizens across the border for flights.
The exclusive photos obtained by the AP highlight the detainee's despair. Often, two surgical masks per face cover the eyes, nose and mouth, bent down under the careful eyes of an armed guard.
“It felt like a blessing to have us coming out of that trap, but the truth is that everyone just wants to go home,” another Indian man, 24, gently spoke on a smuggling cell phone from inside a makeshift detention centre. He asked not to publish his name from concerns about his safety and as the militia protecting them had confiscated their phones.
A fight broke out last week between Chinese citizens waiting to return home and security forces protecting them, the two detainees told the Associated Press.
An unconfirmed list provided by Myanmar authorities says it owns citizens from 29 countries, including the Philippines, Kenya and the Czech Republic.
Waiting for a $600 plane ticket
Thai authorities say they cannot allow foreigners to cross the border from Myanmar unless they are sent home immediately.
China sent the chartered flight to small Maysot airport on Thursday to pick up a group of citizens, but other governments couldn't compare. There are about 130 Ethiopians waiting at a military base in Thailand, and there is a shortage of $600 plane tickets. Last week, dozens of Indonesians got on the bus one morning, pushing suitcases and carrying plastic bags with a handful of possessions as they headed to Bangkok to get home.
Thai officials held a meeting with representatives of foreign embassies this week, pledging to move “as soon as possible” to allow them to save trapped citizens. However, they warned that Thailand can only receive 300 people per day from Monday to Friday. Additionally, embassy staff announced that they will travel to Myanmar.
“The ministry is extremely important to this and recognizes that there are sick people and that they need to be repatriated,” Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndeji Ballankra said on Thursday.
The Indian Embassy in Bangkok did not respond to a request for comment. The Czech Foreign Ministry says it cannot confirm that Czech citizens are among the deported people. It has contacted the embassies in Bangkok and Yangon on the issue and said they have not been asked to help the embassies.
Amy Miller, director of Act of Mercy International in Southeast Asia, is based at the border of Taimyanmar, but says it's difficult for the world to understand why not all released workers are free.
“We can literally stand on the boundaries, with the naked eye, and see people inside, on the balconies, on these compounds, but even so, we can't reach them,” she said. Paused for a moment, she left the nearby window and gestured towards the Friendship Bridge to Myanmar just a block away. “I think what people don't understand is that entering other countries is an act of war. You can't just go in and receive these people.”
Support is rare
Supporting frontline work, especially for countries with low resources, is a small, small nonprofit with very limited funds.
In the undescribed May Sott's house, Miller's organization receives a comfortable sofa, clean water, food, an escape that made it across the river and across the river with working mobile phones, and a trickle of survivors who made it across the river to contact their families. She said today's unprecedented figures overwhelm the aid available across the river.
“When we see the figures of thousands, the ability to take them to Thailand, handle them and house them, and feed them, is impossible for most governments,” Miller said. “It really requires a kind of global response.”
The recent suspension of US foreign aid funding has made it even more difficult to obtain assistance in releasing fraud center workers.
For example, the UN immigration agency had previously provided funding victims of human trafficking in a fraudulent compound in one shelter in Cambodia, but was forced to stop work halting the Trump administration's funding freeze announced in January, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation. The halt of funds also affected a network of civil society groups that worked to stop human trafficking in Thailand and rescue survivors.
Saskia Kok, IOM's Thai Protection Director, said:
In a statement, US authorities confirmed the high pressure deadlock.
“The United States is deeply concerned about online fraud businesses across Southeast Asia, affecting thousands of Americans and individuals in many other countries,” a State Department spokesman said in a statement sent to the Associated Press.
Bigger problems
Advocates estimate that around 50 million people live in modern slavery, but massive rescue of enslaved workers is rare. In 2015, more than 2,000 fishermen were rescued from the brutal state of the ocean that was released after an Associated Press investigation exposed a light letter. That same year, hundreds of Indians were rescued from Indian brick mills. And last year, Brazilian prosecutors rescued 163 Chinese citizens working under “slavery-like” conditions at an electric car factory construction site in northeastern Brazil.
“What we are seeing at the border of Taimyanmar is the result of years of inaction on the human trafficking crisis that has had a devastating impact on thousands of people, many of whom simply wanted a better economic outlook, but were invited to pretend to be falsely pursuing these compounds.”
Freeman said compulsory crimes under the threat of violence should not be criminalized. “But in general, we recognize countries that repatriate local countries from fraudulent compounds.
Business as usual
It is not clear how much of these releases will affect the criminal groups running fraud centres.
February marked the third time Thais had cut their internet or electricity into river towns. Each time, the compound was able to avoid cutting. According to experts working with law enforcement, large compounds can access diesel-powered generators and internet provider Starlink access.
“Resources are one of those things they don't lack and they have been able to endure them in the past,” said Benedict Hoffman, president of the UN Drugs Office on Drugs and Crime in the region.
The armed group that staged the crackdown has been accused of helping to run the fraudulent compounds at Myawaddy. The general, head of the Kayin Border Patrol, was approved by the European Union and the UK for Chit Thu to benefit from fraudulent compounds and human trafficking, respectively. The compounds within the DKBA controls are not well documented in public records, but activists say they control a significant number.
“There's a lot of pressure to take action on the Border Patrol and help people leave. “That being said, it could also reflect adjustments to the business model, reducing the number of stakeholders.
Hoffman said multiple areas are subject to simultaneous pressure.
The crackdown does not close any major prosecutions or compounds.
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“This will not affect anything,” said the 23-year-old Pakistani man who wanted to be freed by simply being trapped in an army camp. The boss is “rich as hell” and can buy anything necessary to continue his advantageous tactics. Meanwhile, he said the situation is getting worse.
“My friend is in a really bad state. I can't survive here,” he said, demanding anonymity due to fear of retaliation from security guards. He asks the question that bothers him every day for weeks: “Is someone coming for us?”
