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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Rebecca Ratcliffe, south-east Asia correspondent

Revealed: the huge growth of Myanmar scam centres that may hold 100,000 trafficked people

Aerial view of a sprawling compound on a lush plain by a large river with prison-like accommodation blocks, flats, offices and hangars surrounded by a perimeter fence
KK Park, one of the major scam centres on the Moei River, which forms the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Some of the compounds reportedly have armed guards, watchtowers and checkpoints. Photograph: Jittrapon Kaicome/The Guardian

Five years ago, the land now home to KK Park – a vast, heavily guarded complex stretching for 210 hectares (520 acres) along the churning Moei River that forms Myanmar’s border with Thailand – was little more than empty fields.

Set against rugged mountains south of the town of Myawaddy, KK Park, with its on-site hospital, restaurants, bank and neat lines of villas with manicured lawns, looks more like the campus of a Silicon Valley tech company than what it really is: the frontline of a multibillion-dollar criminal fraud industry fuelled by human trafficking and brutal violence.

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