Thailand closes Cambodian border over human trafficking, drugs, Chinese scam allegations

The Thai-Cambodian border has closed as the countries’ militaries square off over Thai allegations of human trafficking, drug smuggling and the hosting of Chinese scam operations by Cambodia.

The dispute has been exacerbated by relatively weak civilian governments, where the military often acts as the deciding force behind the scenes.

The border closure by Thailand follows a clash between the Royal Thai Army and Cambodia’s military a month ago, which resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier.

But the roots of the crisis go deeper than just border skirmishes and local politics.

In Thailand, the clash has produced a major scandal that could imperil the current prime minister.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was embarrassed last week after the leak of a fawning phone call with Cambodia’s de facto leader Hun Sen.

Shinawatra, 38, the daughter of a former authoritarian prime minister who was deposed in 2006 by the Royal Thai Army and fled to Montenegro, is facing a no-confidence vote in the Thai parliament next week.

Previously, the strongman’s sister also served as Thailand’s prime minister but was ousted in a 2014 military coup.

All this comes during a generalized crackdown on drug trafficking and tourist visa abuse in Thailand, which has made border enforcement a nightmare for the military trying to stop criminal behavior. 

Thailand was a pioneer in liberalizing marijuana laws, being the first country in Asia to allow both medical and recreational marijuana sales and use. 

However, it took steps to officially re-criminalize recreational marijuana use this month after noting marijuana’s $1.2 billion tourism industry was drawing the wrong type of tourists. Others wanted to ban all marijuana use and sales. 

The current Thai prime minister has been criticized for the softened stand on marijuana, which still allows medical use. 

Her father conducted a war on drugs while he was prime minister, which was widely criticized worldwide for violating human rights.  

However, Thai authorities have accused Cambodia of being the major hub for Chinese organized crime, distributing illegal drugs, operating cybercrime centers and engaging in human trafficking. 

In fact, Cambodia has become a center for the manufacture and transportation of drugs throughout Southeast Asia, a UN report recently found.  

Thai authorities seized 2 tons of crystal methamphetamine earlier this month in the southern province of Rayong, reported the Associated Press.  

Given its proximate location, the meth likely arrived from Cambodia.  

In addition to drug trafficking, Cambodia allows phone center, romance and employment scams fueled by crooked casinos along the border, Thai authorities have argued. 

The enterprises are run by Chinese organized crime in cooperation with local authorities.  

U.S. government and non-governmental organizations agree.  

A report generated by the U.S. Institute for Peace (USIP) found these scams might generate up to 50% of Cambodia’s gross domestic product (GDP). 

“In Cambodia, the return on cyber scamming is estimated to exceed $12.5 billion annually – half the country’s formal GDP – with many compounds owned by local elites,” the institute said.  

Including nearby Myanmar and Laos, the Chinese cyber scams “exceed $43.8 billion” annually in revenues.  

“A significant share of these profits is reported to flow to the Myanmar military and to ruling elites in Cambodia and Laos,” the nonprofit group concluded.  

In a typical forced labor scam, foreign workers from Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries are lured to Cambodia with phony job offers. 

“Victims reported being lured…with false employment opportunities, having their phones and passports confiscated upon arrival, and being forced to work scam operations,” the U.S. Department of the Treasury reported last year. “People who called for help reported being beaten, abused with electric shocks, made to pay a hefty ransom, or threatened with being sold to other online scam gangs.”  

Traffickers force victims to work up to 15 hours a day or sell victims to other scam operations or subject them to sex trafficking, according to the department.  

A U.N. report in April confirmed these findings.  

While local Cambodian authorities have cooperated sometimes with international law enforcement to shut down illegal operations, Thai authorities have criticized these efforts as insufficient.   

The U.N. estimates 100,000 people have been trafficked to Cambodia.   

In March, the Thai government was considering building a wall to protect about 34 miles of the approximately 500 miles common to the Thai-Cambodian border, reported Reuters, showing the criminal trafficking problem predated the current border clash.  

World geopolitics also underlie the border battle.  

Cambodia is the closest partner of communist China in the Southeast Asian region, joining Sino-centric Laos and Myanmar, two countries also connected to drug trafficking and internet-based scams run by Chinese mafias.  

Thailand, on the other hand, is a longtime U.S. ally.  

Ironically, the kidnapping of a well-known Chinese heartthrob helped precipitate the current ruckus.  

Actor Wang Xing, 23, was kidnapped by Chinese scammers in January after answering a fake casting call message on social media. He flew to Bangkok, where Chinese scammers met him and took him to a call center in Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to work. 

When Wang’s girlfriend took to Chinese social media to raise the alarm, his fans created widespread outrage.  

A petition from over 1,000 Chinese nationals who have reportedly been held in the forced labor scheme emerged online, begging Chinese authorities to help bring them home, CNN reported.  

“We have no intention of inciting any confrontation; we simply hope to genuinely draw the government’s attention and accelerate efforts to intensify and expedite crackdowns,” said the petition to the Beijing government, according to the cable news network.