By Durell Namasani
CAPE TOWN — The Human Rights Association (HRA) has issued an urgent call for Myanmar authorities to dismantle the network of online scam compounds operating within its borders, where Malawian nationals are allegedly being held against their will and subjected to forced labour, torture, and physical coercion.
HRA Chairman Saad Kassis-Mohamed released a formal statement on Tuesday demanding the immediate release of all Malawian victims and the prosecution of criminal syndicate leaders running the fortified industrial complexes along Myanmar’s border with Thailand.
According to the HRA, Malawians are among approximately 120,000 people trapped in forced scam labour operations in Myanmar alone, according to United Nations estimates.
The recruitment pattern is consistent: victims receive legitimate-looking job offers through social media and messaging platforms, promising well-paying digital marketing or customer service positions in Thailand or elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Upon arrival, they are transported across the border into Myanmar and forced into industrial-scale online fraud operations under constant surveillance and threat of violence.
The HRA reviewed documented accounts from Malawian survivors. One man identified as Blessings was promised a digital marketing role in Thailand. Instead, he was taken to a fortified compound where he worked sixteen-hour shifts, assigned daily fraud targets under threat of physical punishment if quotas were not met.
“He described the conditions inside the compound as having no beginning and no end, a cycle from which there appeared to be no escape,” the HRA statement said. Blessings eventually managed to return to Malawi.
A second survivor, identified as Grace, was a recent university graduate offered a customer service position abroad. She was trafficked into a scam compound, denied contact with her family for months, and forced to carry out online fraud targeting victims in multiple countries. She eventually escaped but returned to Malawi without financial support or documentation assistance.
“These are Malawian people who did nothing wrong except trust an employment offer,” Kassis-Mohamed said in the statement. “The responsibility for what happened to them sits with Myanmar. The authorities there have an obligation under international law to dismantle these compounds, release every Malawian national held against their will, and ensure that the criminal syndicates running these operations face justice.”
The HRA noted that raids on the KK Park and Shwe Kokko facilities in October 2025 temporarily displaced thousands of workers. However, criminal syndicate leaders have not been prosecuted, and the compounds have reconstituted elsewhere.
The association is calling on Myanmar authorities to dismantle all scam compounds, release all Malawian nationals immediately, arrest and prosecute syndicate leaders through international judicial cooperation, and cooperate fully with the Government of Malawi on rescue and repatriation efforts.
The Human Rights Association is an initiative of the WeCare Foundation in Cape Town.
