Kenya’s embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, has warned Kenyans “for the umpteenth time” against travel to Myanmar, which is currently engaged in a prolonged conflict that has created an environment conducive for slavery and crime.
- According to the embassy, its officials have been camping at the border between Thailand and Myanmar trying to negotiate the release of 10 Kenyans who sent out an appeal for rescue, in just the latest case of what has become common.
- The embassy said that saving the entrapped Kenyans has become a trade, with the cartel bosses demanding that they be reimbursed US $12000 for each Kenyan, because “they bought them as slaves,” for that amount.
- The government has been under pressure to respond to the plight of Kenyans abroad in hostile countries.
“This warning comes as dozens of young Kenyans call out for help from Myanmar’s notorious scam compounds,” the embassy said in a statement, “while others continue to stream in, and literally becoming slaves of Chinese criminal cartels.”
While migration has been touted as one possible solution for individuals in the current macroeconomic climate, and the fact that diaspora remittances are now the highest source of foreign inflows, Kenyans in different places have found themselves enslaved or trapped in conflict zones, or both.
The Men in Myanmar
The Southeast Asia country borders Thailand to the southeast. It is currently engulfed in conflict after a 2021 military coup, sparking an ongoing situation that has created “immense humanitarian needs,” according to the United Nations.
Although the European Union and the United States have placed strict embargoes on sale of arms to the country, weapons such as drones have flowed into the country through China and Russia. Both the military and the rebel groups also manufacture munitions and other weapons domestically and are now deploying drones, raising the stakes of the conflict even further.
The complicated ruse begins in Nairobi and other cities and towns, where recruitment agencies advertise jobs in Thailand but do not disclose that it is in fact just a transit country. Duped into paying for the connections, the Kenyans who do travel find themselves smuggled into highly guarded compounds across the border in Myanmar, where they are enslaved to work in crypto currency scams and other illegal jobs.
The enslavement ecosystem means that failure to meet targets is punished, including with starvation, deprivation, electrocution, and more confinement. It also provides for an intra-slavery market, where “lazy or sickly workers are sold off to other companies.” The camps are guarded by insurgents willing to cash in to fund the ongoing conflicts.
With cash incentives, some Kenyans have joined the scams, working to traffic more Kenyans and support the illegal systems.
Location, contact details, of the Embassy of the Republic of Kenya in Bangkok, Thailand.
