Irrawaddy-July 22
Police have been unable to perform their primary duty of law enforcement since the coup as they have been busy helping the Myanmar military impose a crackdown on dissidents. The resulting lawlessness has allowed criminal gangs and allied human traffickers to thrive in areas controlled by ethnic armed organizations on the Myanmar-China border. Human traffickers have expanded their network to major cities like Yangon and Mandalay, key border towns including Lashio and Tachilek, and even Sagaing and Magwe regions in central Myanmar, which is experiencing fierce fighting between junta and resistance forces. Here, they lure young people with the promise of high-paying jobs, before trafficking them to Wa State, an autonomous enclave in northeastern Myanmar controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
At least 350 people were trafficked in Wa State from February 2021 to May 2023, according to data compiled by the UWSA, Thai authorities, news agencies in northern Shan State, and The Irrawaddy. Among those trafficked were young people from Yangon, Mandalay, Lashio, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Sagaing and Magwe as well citizens from fellow ASEAN countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia, and from Russia. This figure only represents those who have been rescued or sought help. The actual number of trafficked victims is likely to be far higher. Wa State is located in northern Shan State on the border with China. The USWA, which has a long history of trading narcotics and arms, claimed in 2005 that it had abandoned opium-poppy cultivation to focus on rubber, tea and orange trees, as well as mining rare earth elements and other minerals. However, the armed ethnic organization remains on the drugs and arms trafficking watchlists of neighboring Thailand and the US. But one key USWA-controlled business that the Wa army has avoided talking about is the hotel industry linked with casinos, gambling dens, brothels, and phone and internet scams. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/opinion/analysis/whither-wa-state-myanmars-criminal-hub-spreads-wings-under-junta.html
