Malawian nationals held in forced labour operations in Myanmar

Sierra Leone Telegraph: 24 May 2026:

The Human Rights Association (HRA) today calls on the authorities of Myanmar to dismantle without delay the network of online scam compounds operating within its territory in which Malawian nationals are being held against their will, subjected to forced labour, torture, and physical coercion, and prevented from leaving.

The responsibility for the continued operation of these compounds and for the suffering of Malawian nationals held within them rests entirely with Myanmar.

Malawian nationals are among those documented as victims of the scam compound system operating along Myanmar’s border with Thailand. The recruitment model is consistent across cases: victims receive offers of well-paying legitimate employment in Thailand or elsewhere in Southeast Asia, circulated through social media and messaging platforms.

Upon accepting, they are transported to the Thai-Myanmar border and trafficked across into Myanmar, where they are forced to work in industrial-scale online fraud operations under conditions of constant

surveillance, physical violence, and coercion. Those who refuse to participate or attempt to leave are beaten, tortured, and in some cases sold between criminal operations.

The HRA has reviewed documented accounts from Malawian nationals who have survived these operations. One Malawian man, identified as Blessings, was lured to Southeast Asia with the promise of a digital marketing role in Thailand.

He was instead transported across the border into Myanmar and placed in a fortified scam compound. He was forced to work shifts of up to sixteen hours daily, assigned a list of targets each morning, and required to meet fixed quotas of fraudulent transactions under threat of physical punishment.

He described the conditions inside the compound as having no beginning and no end, a cycle from which there appeared to be no escape. He subsequently managed to leave the compound and return to Malawi.

A second Malawian national, identified as Grace, was a recent university graduate when she was offered a customer service position abroad. She was instead trafficked into a scam compound in the region and forced to carry out online fraud targeting victims in multiple countries.

She was denied contact with her family for months. When she finally managed to send word of her situation, her family had no means to secure her release. She eventually escaped but returned to Malawi without any financial support, documentation assistance, or formal recognition of what she had endured.

These cases are not exceptional. The HRA’s review of documented accounts confirms that Malawian nationals are among the African victims of the scam compound system.

The United Nations estimates that approximately 120,000 people remain trapped in forced scam labour operations in Myanmar alone.

The scam compounds at the centre of these operations are not makeshift facilities. They are fortified industrial complexes, some in excess of 500 acres in size, surrounded by armed guards, surveillance systems, and controlled perimeters from which independent escape is effectively impossible.

The criminal syndicates operating these compounds have not been brought to justice. Without their arrest, prosecution, and asset seizure, the compounds will continue to operate, and Malawian nationals will continue to be recruited into them.

The HRA notes that Myanmar has, in other contexts, demonstrated a capacity to respond to international pressure on the scam compound system. Raids on the KK Park and Shwe Kokko facilities in October 2025 resulted in the temporary displacement of thousands of compound workers.

Those operations have not been followed by the prosecution of the criminal syndicate leaders responsible. Criminal syndicates displaced from those sites have reconstituted elsewhere.

The fundamental conditions enabling the recruitment and forced detention of Malawian nationals and others have not been resolved. The obligation to resolve them is not contingent on the preferences of the syndicates or on the pace of international pressure. It is a matter of law.

HRA Chairman Saad Kassis-Mohamed stated: “Blessings was promised a digital marketing job in Thailand. He ended up in a fortified compound in Myanmar, working sixteen-hour shifts under threat of violence, given a list of fraud targets every morning and told to meet his quota.

“Grace was a university graduate offered a customer service role abroad. She was trafficked into a scam compound and denied contact with her family for months.

“These are Malawian people who did nothing wrong except trust an employment offer. 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. That obligation is not contingent on political will. It is a matter of law.

“Blessings was promised a digital marketing job in Thailand. He ended up in a fortified compound in Myanmar, working sixteen-hour shifts under threat of violence. Grace was a university graduate offered a customer service role. She was trafficked into a scam compound and denied contact with her family for months.

“These are Malawian people who did nothing wrong except trust an employment offer. The responsibility for what happened to them sits with Myanmar.”

The HRA calls specifically on the Myanmar authorities to dismantle all scam compounds operating within Myanmar’s territory; to release immediately all Malawian nationals held against their will, with priority given to those who have formally requested repatriation assistance; to arrest and prosecute the criminal syndicate leaders responsible for operating these facilities, including through international judicial cooperation; to seize and forfeit their assets; and to cooperate fully with the Government of Malawi in the rescue and repatriation of all remaining Malawian victims.

About the Human Rights Association

The Human Rights Association is an initiative of the WeCare Foundation, Cape Town, an international human rights organisation working to protect the rights of individuals facing unjust detention, denial of medical care, and due process violations, and engaging directly with United Nations mechanisms to advocate on their behalf.