काठमाडौं ।
The Human Rights Association (HRA) recently calls on the authorities of Myanmar to dismantle without delay the network of online scam compounds operating within its territory in which Nepali 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 Nepali nationals held within them rests entirely with Myanmar.
Nepali 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 Nepali nationals who have survived these operations. One Nepali man, identified as Roshan, was lured to Southeast Asia with the promise of an information technology role in Thailand. He was instead transported across the border into the Myawaddy compound system in Myanmar and forced to work in online fraud operations.
He was required to conduct online dating scams, gaming fraud, and phishing schemes under continuous surveillance, given daily targets, and subjected to physical punishment when those targets were not met. He described returning to Nepal as something he had ceased to believe would happen.
He eventually escaped following a raid on his compound but returned to Nepal with no money, carrying a debt he had incurred to fund the journey that brought him into the hands of his traffickers. A second Nepali national, identified as Anita, was offered a customer service position abroad by a recruiter who approached her family through a mutual contact. She was instead trafficked into a scam compound in the Myawaddy area.
She was denied contact with her family throughout her detention. Her family did not know whether she was alive. When she was eventually able to leave, she crossed the border into Thailand with no documentation, no money, and no formal support. She was repatriated to Nepal after weeks in precarious conditions near the border, without any recognition of what she had endured or any assistance with the debt her family had accumulated trying to locate her.
These cases are not exceptional. The HRA’s review of documented accounts confirms that Nepali nationals are among the most consistently targeted nationalities in the scam compound system. In October 2025, Myanmar security forces raided a compound in the Myawaddy area. Following the raid, 37 Nepali nationals who had been held against their will fled across the border into Thailand. They were subsequently repatriated.
At the time of their rescue, the Embassy of Nepal confirmed that 23 further Nepali nationals remained stranded in Myawaddy. 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, surrounded by armed guards, surveillance systems, and controlled perimeter 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 Nepali 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 compounds in the Myawaddy area in October 2025 resulted in the temporary displacement of compound workers. Those operations have not been followed by the prosecution of the criminal syndicate leaders responsible. Syndicates displaced from raided sites have reconstituted in new locations within Myanmar and in neighbouring countries. The fundamental conditions enabling the recruitment and forced detention of Nepali nationals have not been resolved. The obligation to resolve them is not contingent on the preferences of criminal syndicates or on the pace of international pressure. It is a matter of law.
HRA Chairman Mohamed stated: “Roshan was promised an IT job in Thailand. He ended up in a fortified compound in Myawaddy, running dating scams and phishing operations under threat of violence, given daily targets he had no means of refusing. He came home with no money and a debt he had taken on to reach the traffickers who took him. Anita was offered a customer service role through a family contact. She was instead trafficked into a scam compound and her family spent weeks not knowing whether she was alive. These are Nepali 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 Nepali 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.”
“Roshan was promised an IT job in Thailand. He ended up in a fortified compound in Myawaddy, running fraud operations under threat of violence. Anita was trafficked through a family contact and her family spent weeks not knowing whether she was alive. These are Nepali 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 Nepali 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 Nepal in the rescue and repatriation of all remaining Nepali victims.
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. For more information, visit wcrfoundation.com/human-rights-association.
प्रकाशित: १४ जेष्ठ २०८३, बिहीबार
