Trafficked workers rescued from Myanmar scam hubs say death better than going back

‘We will kill ourselves instead of going back to them,’ said one of the dozens who attempted a mass escape from their Myanmar detention

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Men and women rescued from scam compounds in Myanmar sit inside a camp in Kyaukhat, Myanmar on Sunday, after their escape attempt to discuss their options for getting home. Photo: AP

Published: 4:44pm, 16 Apr 2025

They walked out of the compound in Myanmar not knowing where they would go. Though they were aiming for the river that separated them from Thailand and freedom, they did not know if they would make it across.

A group of more than 270 some men and women, who were rescued from forced labour in scam compounds two months ago but remain in detention in Myanmar, attempted a mass escape on Sunday out of fear that they may end up being sent back to prison-like compounds where they face beatings, torture and potentially even death.

“We will kill ourselves instead of going back to them,” said one woman, who has been waiting to go home to Ethiopia for more than two months. She came to Myanmar for what she thought was a job in customer service more than a year ago, only to realise she had been trafficked. She was forced to work in online scams targeting people across the world.

Facing pressure from China, Thailand and Myanmar’s governments launched a massive operation in February in which they released thousands of trafficked people from scam compounds, working with the ethnic armed groups that rule Myanmar’s border areas.

Some 7,200 – overwhelmingly from China – have returned home, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but around 1,700 are still stuck in Myanmar, many detained in locked compounds not much different to those they were released from.

Victims of scam centres who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar are stuck in limbo at a compound inside the infamous KK Park, a human trafficking hub on the border with Thailand-Myanmar after a multinational crackdown on the compounds. Photo: Reuters

That includes this group of 270, most from Ethiopia and other African countries, who attempted to escape after a meeting in which guards suggested they could be returned to scam compounds. Their attempt highlights the ongoing humanitarian situation left by one of the biggest releases of forced labourers in modern history.