Prologue Journal

Families of Hongkongers trapped in Myanmar ‘scam farms’ plead for their return after Chinese actor’s rescue

• prologu5
• 01/12/202501/12/2025

Hong Kong Free Press

To one Hongkonger, it seemed like a dream job – a purchasing agent transporting goods from Thailand to Japan. It quickly became a nightmare.

Upon arriving in Thailand last summer to pick up the “products,” the Hongkonger had their identity documents seized and was driven across the border into Myanmar.

Days later, a relative of the victim – who uses the pseudonym Kelvin – got a call. In Mandarin, the voice on the other end of the line demanded a US$500,000 ransom for his family member’s release from the “scam farm” where the victim was being forced to work.

“But we don’t have that kind of money,” Kelvin told reporters on Wednesday before submitting a petition for help to the Thai consulate in Hong Kong. The plight of his relative, allowed to talk to family for just minutes at a time, is not uncommon.

The case of mainland Chinese actor Wang Xing who was found by Thai and Chinese authorities after going missing, inspired a sliver of hope, said Andy Yu, a former district councillor with the now-disbanded Civic Party who has been helping six families over trafficking cases.

Wang, reported missing on Friday along Thailand’s border with Myanmar, was rescued following exchanges between Thai and Chinese authorities. “I urge the Hong Kong government to more actively engage with mainland authorities, as diplomatic affairs fall under the purview of the central government,” Kelvin said.

“[Wang’s] rescue only took a few days from the time his case was reported. I can’t say that it was because he was well known and attracted a lot of attention, but my family member is an ordinary citizen that no one would take notice of. I hope the Thai government will help my family members and rescue them as soon as possible,” Kelvin said.

Cases of Hongkongers being trafficked to Myanmar has risen in recent months, following a widely reported surge in 2022. Along with other forms of transnational crime, human trafficking has surged since Myanmar’s military ousted the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi administration in 2021, triggering a civil war with ethnic armed militias.

Since then, the country has become the world’s leading hotbed for transnational crime, according to the Global Organized Crime Index.

Wendy, whose family member is also being held in Myanmar, shared the same frustrations as Kelvin: “As ordinary citizens, we have experienced almost half a year without being able to save [our family members], and we are really helpless.”

“It’s good that some people have been rescued, but as family members, the more we see such successful cases, the more helpless we feel. Sometimes we can’t help but wonder if we have done enough,” Wendy said.

Scam syndicates

Several victims were lured into the trafficking schemes through one-off “jobs” that were fronts for human trafficking, the former district councillor Yu told reporters on Wednesday.

Victims usually took these jobs through social media or messaging platforms including Telegram. Some were referred via friends, Yu earlier told HKFP, though he was not sure if those friends were aware they were promoting a trafficking scheme.

Traffickers had adopted new tactics, he said, by telling targets that the jobs would be in Taiwan or Japan – both popular holiday destinations for Hongkongers — in hopes they would drop their guard.

Wendy’s family member, S, has been in Myanmar for more than four months. Using a pseudonym over fears S might be identified, Wendy said she was able to track a phone signal to Thailand, and later to Myanmar, after S managed to call home.

“I could hear the fear in [their] voice,” Wendy, herself using a pseudonym, told HKFP in a phone interview this week.

S has been forced to work at one of Myanmar’s notorious scam farms on the country’s southern border for more than four months. Victims of several nationalities are forced to conduct romance scams online and risk physical punishment if they fail to meet their captors’ goals.

Based on messaging records found on a computer belonging to S, Wendy deduced that S had been texting a Hong Kong number about a work trip to Thailand as a purchasing agent before flying out. S was supposed to pick up a package in Thailand and then fly to Japan.

Ransoms, or diplomatic channels?

S and Kelvin’s relative are among 13 Hongkongers held captive in Myanmar as of year-end.

A total of 26 cases had been reported to Hong Kong authorities as of December 31, of whom 13 had returned to Hong Kong, according to the Security Bureau. Security chief Chris Tang told lawmakers last month the authorities would “provide full assistance” to bring the victims home, but gave no details as to how.

In 2022, 46 Hong Kong residents sought help from the government after they were trafficked to Southeast Asia and put to work. As of November, all but three of those had returned to Hong Kong, according to the Security Bureau.

Those figures did not inspire confidence, Wendy said, because Hong Kong authorities had not specified whether the returnees had secured their freedom through diplomatic channels, or by paying the ransoms often asked of them.

After S was found texting their family WhatsApp group, their captors demanded a US$500,000 ransom for their release, Wendy said – the same sum demanded of Kelvin. But paying the equivalent of HK$4 million was out of the question because her family had no way to scrape together those funds.

“Even if we could, there’s no guarantee that the traffickers would hand S over,” she added.

S and Kelvin’s family member could be in several compounds along Myanmar’s southern border, including the KK Park project, the Dongmei Zone and the Shwe Kokko new city project.

The Karen Border Guard Force, now renamed the Karen National Army (KNA) in an apparent attempt to distance itself from the coup forces it was previously allied with, is linked to all three zones. According to a report by activist group Justice for Myanmar, scam farms run by the KNA have been linked to Chinese criminal syndicates.

Corporate filings from Myanmar released by non-profit whistle-blower site Distributed Denial of Secrets last year also revealed the involvement of Hong Kong-registered firms in the projects.

Pulling strings

Beijing cracked down on the crime syndicates last year, forcing scam centres in the north of Myanmar to hand over Chinese nationals, most of whom were victims of trafficking schemes. As of April, some 45,000 people had been repatriated, according to the United States Institute of Peace.

But Wendy has heard nothing definitive since she took S’s case to the police and the Immigration Department, who contacted Interpol as well as the Thai and Myanmar authorities. Hong Kong’s diplomatic issues are handled by mainland Chinese authorities.

About a month after S’s disappearance, a desperate Wendy considered using vigilante-style “rescuers” for help.

A search for civilian rescue teams on mainland Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat and Xiaohongshu brings up profiles mostly of young Chinese men brandishing what appear to be rifles, claiming to be able to help people escape from Myanmar scam farms.

After weeks of messaging with some of these self-styled “rescuers,” Wendy was still doubtful as to whether they could deliver – or if they were scammers themselves. Most asked for hefty fees, including some who sought upfront payments.

Kelvin was also hesitant to hire these “rescue teams,” saying some asked for upfront payments ranging from HK$200,000 up to HK$1 million.

Ultimately, Beijing could leverage its economic interests in Myanmar and its relations with both the coup government and the ethnic armed militias, said Debby Chan, a lecturer at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy.

“The mass deportation operations of Chinese scammers from Myanmar to China showcased Beijing’s influence on the military-affiliated ethnic armed groups,” Chan told HKFP in an email.

“Beijing could pull its strings to achieve its strategic goals even in a volatile political environment in Myanmar.”

Support HKFP  |  Policies & Ethics  |  Error/typo?  |  Contact Us  |  Newsletter  | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps

Help safeguard press freedom & keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team

.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-title {
font-size: 1.2em;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .entry-meta {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
align-items: center;
margin-top: 0.5em;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .entry-meta {
font-size: 0.8em;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles article .avatar {
height: 25px;
width: 25px;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail{
margin: 0;
margin-bottom: 0.25em;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail img {
height: auto;
width: 100%;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles .post-thumbnail figcaption {
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
}
.wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles p {
margin: 0.5em 0;
}

MORE Original Reporting

Families of Hongkongers trapped in Myanmar ‘scam farms’ plead for their return after Chinese actor’s rescue

Hong Kong’s new breast milk ‘bank’ could help save the lives of struggling newborns

Explainer: Hong Kong’s national security crackdown – month 54

Year in Review: 15 times Hong Kong made int’l headlines in 2024

https://hongkongfp.com/2025/01/12/families-of-hongkongers-trapped-in-myanmar-scam-farms-plead-for-their-return-after-chinese-actors-rescue/