This aerial photo taken on Sept 17, 2025 shows the KK Park complex in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Mae Sot district in Thailand’s border province of Tak. - AFP
MANILA: In a Border Guard Force (BGF) shelter in Myawaddy, Myanmar, Jun (not his real name) spent Christmas with 80 other Filipinos and an undetermined number of other foreign nationals. Most probably, they will also welcome the New Year there, waiting for the Friendship Bridge between Myanmar and Thailand to reopen.
“I didn’t even know this country, Myanmar. I was not supposed to work here,” Jun said. He showed his round-trip tickets to China, which were unexpectedly cancelled. Instead, he and two other Filipinos flew from Hanoi to Yangon on Aug 20.
Jun, a mall administrator in Manila, found a job advertisement on Telegram. He was enticed by the large salary—one he said he would never earn if he stayed in his job in the Philippines. With two young children to support, he saw the offer as a ticket to a better future.
According to Jun, the recruiter asked for ₱10,000 (US$170) as a placement fee.
“It was my first time. I didn’t know how the recruitment process worked. I never met my recruiter in the Philippines,” Jun said.
He is among the thousands of Filipinos trafficked to Myanmar since 2022. Promised a lucrative job in the IT industry, he instead found himself confined in a heavily guarded compound in Myawaddy, run by Chinese syndicates, and forced to scam people through schemes commonly known as “pig butchering” or “love scams.”
The promised $1,000 salary never materialized; instead, workers were fined when daily quotas were not met, along with other deductions, including airfare costs.
On Aug 17, 2025, Jun had a round-trip ticket from Manila to Hanoi via Cebu Pacific, along with a connecting flight from Hanoi to China. He also had a hotel reservation. At NAIA Terminal 3, he met two other Filipinos who had likewise been recruited to work in China.
Jun said they were instructed to proceed to a specific counter or cubicle.
“It was my first time traveling abroad. I handed my passport to the male immigration officer on duty around midnight,” Jun recalled.
Although he was a first-time traveller and unemployed at the time, Jun was not questioned by the immigration officer. Jun claimed that his passport, along with those of his companions, was stamped immediately.
INQUIRER.net is seeking comment from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Jun’s statements and will publish it as soon as it becomes available.
On Aug 20, Jun and his companions flew to Yangon. Upon arrival, a Burmese man assisted them at the airport. He later learned that 35 others from different countries had also been recruited to work in Myawaddy.
At the time, Jun did not know where they were being taken. Two vans fetched them, and they travelled for more than 24 hours, passing checkpoints, forested areas, and taking a 45-minute boat ride before reaching KK Park at Dong Feng Company.
Jun said they eventually met their Filipina recruiter and her husband, identified as “Poh,” a Malaysian national already working at the scam hub. The Filipina then explained the nature of their work.
On Oct 23, 2025, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) launched a major operation targeting scam compounds inside KK Park, one of the region’s largest hubs for online fraud.
The operation triggered a bombing in the area, prompting Chinese syndicates to move Jun’s group to another scam hub in Myawaddy, farther from the site.
In an earlier interview, Jay Kritiya, coordinator of the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victims Assistance (CSNHTV) in Thailand, said the victims were simply moved out of the area and remain under guard.
According to Jun and other rescued Filipinos, hundreds of victims have been transported to Cambodia or to other parts of Myanmar that remain inaccessible to authorities. Many are “resold” by their handlers.
On Dec 11, the BGF rescued 81 Filipinos, including Jun, along with several other foreign nationals. Among those now staying in the shelter are their Filipina recruiter and her Malaysian husband. Jun fears the couple may be released if they are not repatriated soon.
At a press conference on Dec 14, Myanmar junta Deputy Minister for Home Affairs Maj. Gen. Aung Kyaw Kyaw urged countries to repatriate their citizens still in shelters in Myawaddy.
Chinese nationals—numbering more than 500—make up the largest group awaiting repatriation, followed by citizens of India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Kenya. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
