Why action is needed to avoid some countries being labelled as 'scam states'.

Synopsis: Every third and fourth Friday of the month, The Straits Times' global contributor Nirmal Ghosh shines a light on Asian perspectives of global and Asian issues with expert guests.

With their heavy security, territorial control and global reach, we look at South-east Asia’s industrial-size scam compounds, where thousands are lured from low-employment countries to work as forced labour stealing billions of dollars from victims worldwide. They are a national security threat to the countries they are based in as well as to the countries they target.

The criminal organisations running these centres emanate mostly from China, and are physically located mainly in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar but across the region in other countries as well. Sporadic crackdowns of the type recently seen in Laos’ Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, are often choreographed ahead of time, enabling kingpins to evade them.

According to a report released in May by the US Institute of Peace (USIP), as at the end of 2023, scam centres operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos had accounted for US$39 billion (S$50.1 billion) in stolen funds.

Jason Tower, Myanmar country director at USIP, joins host Nirmal Ghosh in this episode of Asian Insider to talk about the many aspects of this criminal industry, from human trafficking to forced labour and cybercrime.

He suggests that Malaysia - as the next chair of Asean - has an opportunity to exercise leadership as 2025 will mark the 10th anniversary of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Combating Transnational Crime.