section_path: Government and politics/Human rights and internal conflicts/Slavery and human trafficking
section_name: Slavery and human trafficking
paragraph_text: Slavery and human trafficking
  
  Forced labour and human trafficking are common in Myanmar. Human trafficking happens mostly to women who are unemployed and have low incomes. They are deceived by brokers that better opportunities and wages exist for them abroad. In 2017, the government reported 185 trafficking cases. The government of Burma makes little effort to eliminate human trafficking. The U.S. State Department reported that both the government and Tatmadaw were complicit in sex and labour trafficking. Women and girls from all ethnic groups and foreigners have been victims of sex trafficking in Myanmar. They are forced into prostitution, marriages or pregnancies. Sex trafficking in Myanmar has been fuelled by factors like internal conflict, political instability, land confiscation, poor border management, and government restrictions on providing travel documents.
  
  A cyber-scam industry in Myanmar's borderlands has involved human trafficking, forced labour and other abuses. Many of the scam centres are in territories controlled by junta allies like the Border Guard Force. In August 2023, a report from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar were trapped in such centres by criminal gangs.