Growing Myanmar scam centers may hold 100,000 trafficked people
The Guardian | Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the Myanmar military junta, the number of vast complexes such as KK Park on the Thai-Myanmar border continues to grow.
From the outside, Myanmar’s KK Park looks like a small city with its own hospital, restaurants, banks, and housing. Look closer and you can see that the 520-acre campus along the Moei River border with Thailand is heavily guarded.
The guards are there as much to keep people in as they are to keep people out. KK Park is a scam compound, part of the multibillion-dollar criminal fraud industry fueled by human trafficking and brutal violence.
Thai police estimated up to 100,000 people were held inside Myanmar scam centers along the shared border in early 2025.
The number of scam centers along the Thai-Myanmar border alone has more than doubled since 2021. And the construction is ongoing. Drone footage shows the level of fortification and security they use to protect the facilities. Housing ranges from luxury villas for management to barracks for forced labor.
Growth of Scam Centers
Internationally, governments mistakenly view scam centers as a relatively small human trafficking concern, according to Amy Miller from Acts of Mercy International, a U.S. evangelical organization that works with victims of human trafficking.
Beyond Southeast Asia, Interpol reports that scam centers are also appearing in the Middle East, West Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.