"Thousands Abandon Myanmar Scam Hub After Junta’s ‘Raid Rehearsal’", 23 October 2025

Thousands of workers from Chinese-run scam compounds in KK Park—a Karen State crime hub notorious for human trafficking and forced labor—fled to Myawaddy town, nearby villages and across the Thai border …, amid reports of impending junta raids, according to locals.

Thousands of foreign nationals from the KK Park were also queuing at border gates hoping to cross into Thailand, local sources said.

Myanmar’s junta … said it raided the scam hub, confiscating 30 Starlink satellite receivers and other communication equipment, but claimed to have found no evidence of criminal activity.

Regime said it found over 200 buildings and around 2,200 workers at the site, including 98 security staff. However, a source working at KK Park said scam operations continued as normal, with no arrests…

…, Thailand had allowed only 160 people to cross from Myawaddy—mainly from Argentina, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea—while thousands more were still waiting at the gate, the source added…

Ko Pho Thingyan of the Overseas Irrawaddy Association, a Myanmar migrant and refugee support group based in Mae Sot, Thailand, said preparations are underway to provide food aid for about 2,000 workers fleeing KK Park, and Thai authorities are still arranging reception areas on their side of the border.

Justice for Myanmar (JFM), an activist group that has reported extensively on scam centers, accused the Myanmar military of overseeing a vast criminal network with its allied Karen Border Guard Force (BGF)…

It added that their profits come from land control, real estate projects linked to cyber scams, extortion and taxation, providing security for criminal groups, smuggling, human trafficking, and sale of utilities.

JFM called the junta a root cause of regional instability, including mass displacement across borders, and urged ASEAN and the international community to take action against the military regime…

It hosts casinos, hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, brothels, and online scam centers notorious for trafficking workers to run “romance scams” and fraudulent investment schemes…