Myanmar rebels and police accused of trafficking scam workers

The Irrawaddy

A human rights group has accused Myanmar’s powerful United Wa State Army (UWSA) and regime police of trafficking young Burmese workers from online scam centres to Chinese‑run rare earth mines in eastern Shan State.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) said three men were taken from a scam compound in Tachileik last year and forced into hard labour at a mine in Mong Yawn, near the Thai border. Survivors described being handed over by police to UWSA soldiers, then detained and made to dig and carry heavy loads. One worker, known as Ko Thet, said prisoners were kept apart from regular staff and punished harshly for escape attempts. He managed to flee in June 2025.

“This is the first time we have observed humans being trafficked to a rare earth mining operation from scam centres,” SHRF spokesperson Ying Leng Harn told The Irrawaddy. She warned that the scale of trafficking remains unknown and called on the UWSA to take responsibility.

The UWSA denied the allegations, calling them “groundless accusations intended to attack the organisation.” Its spokesperson insisted the group was cracking down on cyber‑scam operations and would act against any cases of enslavement.

Rare earth mining in UWSA‑controlled areas has expanded rapidly, with sites in Mong Bawk rising from three in 2015 to 29 in 2025. A Chinese state‑backed company has also extended operations into Mong Yawn. Environmental groups say toxic runoff from unregulated mines has polluted the Kok and Salween rivers, with Thai authorities detecting dangerous levels of arsenic in water samples.

The SHRF argues that the collaboration between Chinese syndicates and mine operators highlights a wider failure of regulation, leaving local land and resources in the hands of “criminal‑linked foreign investors.” For trafficked workers, it is a grim reminder of how Myanmar’s conflict economy continues to exploit its most vulnerable.

-2026-05-22