Mae Sot’s sour trafficking record

Mae Sot, a town on the Thai-Myanmar border in Tak province, is notorious as a hub for cross-border human trafficking and transnational organised crime run by Chinese mafia syndicates. Despite this, government action has been grossly inadequate to combat the problem.
During a recent visit to Mae Sot to review anti-human trafficking efforts, Pol Lt Gen Prachuab Wongsuk, acting deputy national police chief, identified the town as the country’s top hotspot for cross-border human trafficking, online scams, gambling, and other illegal activities.
This is not surprising. Each year, thousands of victims from various countries are lured by fake high-paying job offers to work in Thailand, but are funnelled through Mae Sot to Myawaddy, Myanmar’s border town opposite Mae Sot, to work for Chinese scam operations.
According to victims, they are swept through immigration at Bangkok’s international airports and driven through border checkpoints to Mae Sot without issue. Some are even flown directly to Mae Sot. Undeniably, local corruption is involved.
Once in Myawaddy, the victims are imprisoned, their phones confiscated, they are forced into debt bondage, and are forced to scam people worldwide. Those who refuse or fail to meet quotas face torture, including beatings, electrocution, and other abuse. They must pay a ransom if they want to be released.
While the Chinese operators carry out the torture, the facilities are guarded by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), two armed groups operating in Myanmar’s Karen State. In addition to Thais, human trafficking victims come from various countries, including Laos, the Philippines, Iraq, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Morocco, Kenya, and others.
On Oct 26, the Civil Society Network for Victim Assistance in Human Trafficking, a human rights NGO, sent an open letter to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, calling for the immediate rescue of 110 victims and action to stop Chinese syndicates using Mae Sot to traffic people into Myanmar. The group also appealed to the BGF, DKBA, the Defence Ministry, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for rescue operations. Nothing has happened.
Several embassies have contacted the network to help rescue their citizens held by Chinese mafia groups, pushing the number of human trafficking victims seeking help to over 500.
Thailand can no longer ignore this issue. According to the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, online scams run by these Chinese criminal networks cost Thailand at least 50 million baht every day. This not only harms the country’s productivity but also worsens its struggling economy.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that East and Southeast Asia lost between $18–37 billion to online scams in 2023 — around 648 billion to 1.3 trillion baht. Meanwhile, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) estimated these syndicates globally stole nearly $64 billion a year, or about 2.28 trillion baht.
Apart from economic damage, the criminal networks have co-opted political and business elites in host countries, worsening corruption, fueling money politics and undermining democratic principles.
While the scam compounds operate in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, Thailand cannot deny its role as a transit hub for trafficking victims exploited by these Chinese syndicates.
According to Usip, thousands of victims from 60 countries have been trafficked and enslaved in the Southeast Asian scam industry. This level of crime would not be possible if Thailand were more effective in stopping it.
The acting deputy police chief recently visited a group of scam victims in Mae Sot on Nov 12. His team found a group of Chinese people who had arrived suspiciously, claiming they were tourists heading to Pattaya but had been unknowingly driven to Mae Sot by a taxi driver.
The police freed all concerned, including the taxi driver, and announced to the media that they had rescued a group of Chinese people from human trafficking. Case closed.
This is not just inefficiency; it’s a dangerous failure of duty that allows human trafficking to continue unchecked. It’s true that the power, reach, and advanced technology of the cyber fraud industry require international cooperation to stop and punish them. However, Thailand cannot ignore its responsibility to take legal action against crimes happening within its borders — especially against corrupt officials and those involved in money laundering. Additionally, the government must address the telecommunications infrastructure enabling these online call centres.
Thailand must stop being a silent partner in this transnational crime before more lives are destroyed.