Myanmar’s Scam Centres

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Observers are calling this possibly the biggest human trafficking event in modern times. Hundreds of thousands of people recruited – usually under false pretences - to work in massive facilities in the border areas of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, to promote fraudulent investment schemes and romance scams to unsuspecting citizens around the world. The scams, run by criminal gangs, are thought to be making tens of billions of dollars every year. Those recruited often find themselves, trapped, beaten and tortured. Ed Butler travels to Thailand’s border with Myanmar to investigate the scale of the trade, to speak to survivors and to some of those still involved, and to explore what role the ongoing civil war in Myanmar is playing in fuelling this apparently burgeoning criminal trade, beyond the reach of international law-enforcement.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wow, this really is kind of extraordinary.
0:07.5	I'm standing now at a rather lovely drink spot on the banks of a river in northern Thailand.
0:14.7	The water is flowing in front of me, the birds are singing, and I'm sipping a rather lovely drink. But you hear that
0:24.3	generator, well, that's giving a rather different clue about what's going on here. My name's Ed Butler,
0:31.0	and for assignment on the documentary from the BBC World Service this week, I'm investigating
0:36.9	what's going on inside these buildings I can see on the other side of the river.
0:43.8	Many have bars on the windows.
0:47.0	There are some of just dozens of such complexes in this part of Southeast Asia
0:51.8	that are thought to be home to thousands,
0:55.7	literally thousands of human slaves.
0:59.4	People traffic from around the world who are now being forced into scamming people,
1:04.1	like you and me, with fake online investment schemes.
1:15.7	2023, I see a WhatsApp status of my best friend's husband saying there's data entry, jobs in Thailand.
1:20.5	You will get accommodation, food, everything.
1:25.0	This is Anika Borum.
1:27.2	She's a 35-year-old professional from Sri Lanka.
1:30.4	It was a good offer. So I never thought they were going to scam me and send me to Myanmar.
1:36.4	Two years ago, Annika got on a plane and flew into what she now describes as a living hell.
1:42.6	Her experiences echo those of dozens of scam survivors from around the world.
1:48.7	She was whist through an airport and after a long, scary and ill-explained journey,
1:54.4	found herself gazing at a massive walled compound.
1:58.4	It was a huge military camp. We were so scared. We started crying. And then we say we want
	...

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