According to United Nations statistics, hundreds of thousands of people have become victims of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, with few managing to escape. Among them is a survivor from the scam parks in Northern Myanmar, who is willing to face the camera and recount the brutal acts in the Myanmar scam parks.
Wang Xing, who was deceived into going to Myanmar as an actor, is not the first victim. In the summer of 2023, Xu Bochun received an invitation for a part-time acting job and was deceived into going to the Kokang region in Myanmar.
Xu Bochun, a survivor of the scam in Northern Myanmar: "In 2023, it was similar to Wang Xing. I saw the notice in a temporary actors' group. On the evening of July 6th, I took a hard seat from Shanghai South Station to Kunming, arriving in Kunming around 6 am on July 8th. When I got to Xishuangbanna around noon, they gave me an address—Wanda Cinema, and asked me to take a taxi there. (Upon arriving at Wanda Cinema) suddenly, about a dozen people in camouflage uniforms appeared, with packs at their waists and knives beside them, playing good cop, bad cop. One of them, I remember clearly, started looking at his phone and said, 'Don't be scared, don't panic, just over this mountain and back in two or three days, and then as agreed, you'll get a month's salary.' After 48 hours, we arrived at Kokang Old Street, and that's when I realized it was Myanmar."
After passing through numerous checkpoints, they were taken to a farmhouse in the Kokang region, where over thirty mercenaries subjected them to continuous beatings. Any resistance was met with gunfire, and even live-streamed executions.
Xu Bochun: "One characteristic they had was that if you didn't resist and were obedient, they wouldn't beat you to death, they would only beat you from the buttocks down, because they said your kidneys are valuable. (One day) a group of people came, and during the beating, some tried to resist. When they resisted, all the mercenaries in the yard came over, and the Chinese at the table said to shoot me. During this, I saw with my own eyes four people being shot dead on the spot, and seven others were shot but not killed, they were just wounded. They made all of us go into the yard, squat down, and placed these four dead bodies and the seven who were not dead, all in handcuffs and shackles, in front of us. Then someone came in and introduced himself, asking what you did back in the mainland. The man said he was a veterinarian before, (the mercenaries said) good, come find the bullets in these seven people, because four had died. He took a thin knife and just started digging into their legs, digging around, not really looking for bullets, just digging to intimidate us, the pigs."
In the descriptions of the survivors, scam groups in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar often live-stream to each other using Telegram.
Xu Bochun: "In the yard, there were those traditional stoves, like charcoal stoves with kettles on top. They boiled water, and those people were all handcuffed and shackled, then they poured boiling water over their toe joints. They had several stoves to do the first round, slowly scalding those people with boiling water. After that, they took small knives to cut at the toe joints, not cutting through, then poured a second round. After waiting a while, they boiled water again for the third round. By the third round, these people were in so much pain they couldn't scream anymore. After the third round of pouring and cutting, the local mercenaries did it, and then the Chinese came up and personally broke off all the toe joints that had been cut and scalded three times. It was extremely bloody."
Reporter: "So after you were sold to Kokang, was there some sort of distribution process?"
Xu Bochun: "What they called young ones might be sent to Myawaddy where they are more valuable, and those not so young might be sent to medical ships in the Thai international waters where they might be a bit more valuable. So, everyone's will to survive depended on each time, regardless of whether it was men or women, when so-called agents came to pick people, although we reeked, (we) all tried very hard, including myself, to raise our hands, hoping to be chosen, hoping to escape from here, because staying here meant certain death."
A United Nations report shows that hundreds of thousands have been trafficked to Southeast Asia for telecom scams, but the exact scale is still difficult to estimate.
