Myanmar: Forced labor camp for online fraud is bombed

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Explosions in a Chinese special economic zone called KK Park in Myanmar are not only sending building debris into Thailand but also causing people to flee across the border river Moei. From Friday to Sunday, Thai authorities apprehended 1,525 people of around 30 different nationalities. They had been forced into labor, particularly in the form of online scams, at a mafia camp. The explosions are attributed to bombs from the Myanmar military, which intends to blow up this forced labor camp house by house.

Myanmar staged a coup against the army at the beginning of 2021 and ousted the democratically elected in fact leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The promised new elections did not materialize, and the country is sinking into chaos and violence. The military is trying to suppress any resistance, with varying degrees of success. Various rebel groups across the country are fighting, sometimes successfully, against the coup plotters and their military. Under these circumstances, criminal organizations have established large-scale scam operations in some areas, where tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, are forced to contact people worldwide via the internet and defraud them through various schemes.

One of these camps is located in the KK Park special economic zone, which lies directly on the Moei River, forming the border with Thailand. According to reports, “KK” is said to stand for the initials of a Chinese triad boss. The facility, built starting in 2019, has its origins in the People's Republic of China's “New Silk Road” initiative, which finances projects worldwide to expand international trade and its influence. The location on the border is not coincidental; the original goal of KK Park was to promote trade between Thailand and Myanmar. Beijing is now distancing itself from the project.

KK Park is walled and is said to have supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, and even a hospital. This also serves for forced organ extraction. This is lucrative and also serves as a means to ensure diligent work from those imprisoned. Other methods include torture, rape, and murder. Organ trafficking is likely a side business for the operators. They generate money through forced prostitution, running illegal gambling operations, and especially numerous forms of online fraud, from supposed love affairs to alleged cryptocurrency investments.

Power outage had no effect

According to media reports, KK Park's power supply was cut in 2023, prompting the operators to resort to their generators. In early 2025, illegal fiber optic connections running through the border river were severed, and illegal mobile transmitters were destroyed. In the course of this operation, according to the Bangkok Post, 7,141 forced laborers were freed. However, Thailand did not want to accept them; they were to be repatriated directly from the civil war-torn country of Myanmar to their countries of origin.

At that time, Thai mobile operators aimed their border antennas to transmit little into Myanmar, to take the forced labor camp offline. However, its operators switched to Starlink, as Wired already reported in February reported.

This October, Agence France Press (AFP) found active construction. In mid-October, the military claims to have arrested 2,000 people in KK Park and confiscated 30 Starlink antennas—a drop in the ocean. Last week, Starlink announced that it had taken 2,500 Starlink antennas out of operation in the vicinity of scam centers in Myanmar out of operation.

New approach: Explosives

Since Friday evening (local time), the military has been directly targeting the building infrastructure: the houses are being blown up one by one. On Friday alone, 10,000 people are said to have attempted to flee KK Park. Their fate is unclear.

Since KK Park is located directly on the border, this naturally alarms the Thai army, which was informed in advance. Not without reason, as several pieces of debris have already flown across the river and caused property damage. While there was initially talk of air attacks, according to an officer of the Third Thai Army, the Myanmar military is actually laying ground explosives.

According to the Thai newspaper The Nation, there were four explosions from Friday to Monday. The focus is reportedly on the southern part of KK Park, where the main part of this forced labor camp for online fraud is said to be located. Initially, buildings under construction and peripheral buildings are being blown up, followed by the central facilities.

Fleeing across the river is dangerous, but not for everyone

Each demolition apparently triggers a wave of escape. Some people manage to escape across the border river, mostly wading through fords, some even swimming. Some of these refugees are then picked up by Thai authorities: 1,525 people over the four days.

Of these, 250 were women and 1,275 were men. The refugees come from approximately 30 countries. According to Thai authorities, the largest group are Indians (482), followed by Filipinos (220), Chinese (193), Vietnamese (135), Ethiopians (133), and Kenyans (102). They ended up in the camp through misleading job advertisements and classic human trafficking, among other means.

However, triad members are also trying to escape via Thailand. On October 22, Thai authorities reported on their side of the Moei River that they had arrested 30 Chinese and one Laotian, who were hiding in a cornfield and apparently waiting for further transport. They reportedly admitted to being on their way through Thailand to Laos with the help of human smugglers, at a cost of 150,000 Baht (approximately 4,000 Euros) per person. This group had crossed the Moei by boat relatively comfortably.

Authorities found 280,000 Baht (over 7,300 Euros) in cash with one of these Chinese individuals, which was likely intended for the group's travel expenses. In their destination country, Laos, Chinese triads are likely to operate further crime centers.

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