When many people think of human trafficking, images of criminal gangs operating covertly in dark alleys often come to mind. However, this is not always an accurate picture. In the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in northern Laos on the Thai and Chinese borders, human traffickers can operate openly under the protection of an international jurisdictional void.

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The Origin of The Golden Triangle Economic Zone and Human Trafficking Schemes

The Golden Triangle Economic Zone originated from a contract between the Lao government and Kings Romans Group, a Hong Kong-based company led by Zhao Wei. In 2007, the company signed a 99-year lease with the Lao government for a 3,000-hectare piece of land in exchange for a promise to develop the area’s economy. Kings Romans Group has certainly kept up its end of the bargain, investing $2 billion in the SEZ, or approximately 1/10 the total economy of Laos.

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However, these billions have come from human trafficking, narcotics, crypto scams, money laundering, and wildlife trade. As a result, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Kings Romans while the Thai government posted warnings about the risks of human trafficking on its border with the zone. This has led to the SEZ entering a grey zone in international law where the Lao authorities have no jurisdiction over the leased territory that is largely run by Chinese nationals, while China has no authority over even nominally Lao territories, even if they are largely run by Chinese citizens.

This has a drastic effect on the nature of human trafficking in the zone as, once inside, there is little that national governments can do to help people trafficked into the zone. Without any law enforcement, this means traffickers are able to keep victims behind barred windows, high fences, and razor wire without any need to hide their activities.

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The Scammers and the Scammed

Victims who are trafficked into the zone, called “dog-pushers,” are forced to perform “romance-investment cons, crypto fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling operations at some 1,000 scam prisons, generating $75 billion over the past four years,” according to Time.

Rachel Yoong, a Malaysian national, became a victim of human trafficking in and around the Golden Triangle SEZ after applying for a job opening at a casino in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital. After she accepted the position and got off her flight, she was bundled into a car with two burly armed men and driven 700 miles to northern Myanmar. There, she was forced to work crypto scams for 17 hours a day with other victims from across Asia. Those who failed to meet their quotas were beaten, raped, and even electrocuted. Forced into submission, Yoong became a top earner, bringing in $30,000 each month from online scams. Eventually, Yoong paid her traffickers $40,000 to be sold to a different syndicate, where she was forced to lead a team of “dog-pushers,” or scammers. After planning a mass escape attempt that ultimately failed, another victim took responsibility so Yoong would not be punished. He was beaten so badly that he could not get out of bed for a week.

On the other end of a similar scam, Troy Gochenour, an Ohio resident, fell victim to a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme that promised a 1% daily return. He was tricked into investing $25,800 by an individual posing online as a woman named “Penny.” He only realized he was being scammed when he was told that his investment had yielded $200,000 for him — all he had to do was pay “the $35,000 tax” to receive it.

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Cracking Down on Corruption

But there is hope of improvement. Local Lao people have become increasingly hostile to the zone for its criminal activities and its degrading effect on the local community, stating that they “do not appreciate the devaluation of Lao sovereignty.” On the Chinese side, the ruling communist party has become increasingly hostile itself, as many of the scams run from the zone and nearby areas of continental Southeast Asia have targeted Chinese people. The Chinese government has begun pressuring Myanmar to shut down scam centers and has even helped rescue some Chinese victims. The result has been that local authorities have sent 31,000 suspected human traffickers out of the region and back to China. This has forced the traffickers to shift the targets of their scams to the West to avoid reprisals from scammed Chinese citizens.

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Hope and Uncertainty

The jurisdictional void in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone has allowed human traffickers to operate with impunity. This criminal haven has enabled them to use much more forceful and coercive methods to control victims than if there had been any police presence. The tides appear to be changing, as regional authorities in Laos and China have begun cracking down on criminal activities in the zone. Only time will tell if these efforts will be effective or if they simply shift the focus of crime farther away to Western victims.