Myanmar Spring Chronicle – October 19 Perspective
(MoeMaKa, October 20, 2025)
Over a hundred Myanmar nationals arrested in Thailand and Bangkok — Junta troops enter KK Park, a scam hub on the Thai-Myanmar border
Thai authorities customarily open migrant worker registration programs once a year, though the specific dates vary. In 2025, news broke that registration would begin on October 15. Following that announcement, large numbers of Myanmar migrant workers began making their way into Thailand by any means possible to participate in the process.
Instead of crossing through conflict-affected areas like Myawaddy Township, many entered Thailand illegally via routes along the Mon State border near Three Pagodas Pass into Kanchanaburi Province, often with the help of human smugglers. In recent months, a tragic incident occurred when a boat carrying undocumented Myanmar migrants capsized at night while crossing a lake into Kanchanaburi, killing three people.
In recent days, Thai police and immigration officers arrested over 100 undocumented Myanmar nationals in Mahachai, an area on the outskirts of Bangkok. Reports say those detained had each paid human smugglers more than one million kyat to help them enter Thailand to obtain work registration cards.
The latest reported arrests took place between October 17 and 19 in Kanchanaburi and Mae Sot, where 220 Myanmar nationals were detained for illegal entry. Among them were 11 minors under the age of 18, according to Thai media reports. Some of these young people may have fled the country to avoid being forcibly conscripted into the military under Myanmar’s mandatory service law, traveling with family members seeking work in Thailand.
For many Myanmar nationals, Thailand poses the risk of arrest and deportation, yet they continue to cross the border because of the far greater dangers inside Myanmar — war, forced conscription, job scarcity, and skyrocketing living costs. Many families rely on members who work as migrant laborers in Thailand to send remittances back home, even if that means entering the country through irregular or illegal channels.
These crossings come with great risks — arrests, vehicle crashes during smuggling runs, and deportations that expose returning young men to possible forced recruitment by the Myanmar military.
Another major development reported today is that junta troops have entered and seized control of KK Park, a notorious cyber-scam and human trafficking compound near Myawaddy’s southern area, after reportedly capturing the nearby villages of Lay Keko and Shwe Taw Kone. The military claimed to have detained over 2,000 people connected to the compound’s online scam operations and seized related equipment and property.
KK Park, located along the Moei River opposite Thailand, contains hundreds of buildings and has long been known as a hub for online financial fraud targeting victims around the world through “pig butchering” scam schemes. This is the first time the junta has claimed to seize such a compound in the war-torn border region.
The land on which KK Park sits was leased in 2020 by a Chinese company from the Karen National Union (KNU). A photo of the lease agreement signed by KNU economic officer Padoh Saw Roger Khin circulated on social media a few years ago. Today, KK Park is under the control of the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), which rebranded itself as the Karen National Army (KNA) under the leadership of Saw Chit Thu.
While relations between the junta and the BGF/KNA were relatively cool in early 2024, the BGF/KNA later cooperated with junta forces in military operations in Karen State and publicly expressed support for the junta’s planned election earlier this year.
Given this context, the junta’s “raid” on KK Park appears to have been coordinated with the BGF/KNA, rather than a genuine military confrontation. The absence of fighting and the smooth operation suggest prior understanding. It is plausible that the BGF/KNA agreed to hand over the compound to reduce international pressure from Thailand and the United States over the cyber-scam issue.
From the junta’s perspective, this operation may serve primarily as a propaganda move — an attempt to show the international community that it is acting against transnational cybercrime. In reality, the regime had previously failed to suppress scam syndicates or human trafficking operations, both during its offensives in Karen State and in the broader “Operation 1027” conflict that began in northern Shan State.
Over the past several years, many armed groups along the Thai-Myanmar border have earned revenue by protecting casino businesses. As those casinos evolved into large-scale online scam centers known as “pig butchering” operations, these groups transformed into transnational criminal networks based in lawless zones across Southeast Asia.