Rights groups condemn US talks with Myanmar junta on scam centers

Mizzima

Twenty-five human rights and advocacy organizations issued a joint statement from Washington on 2 July, raising concern over a meeting between U.S. officials and representatives of Myanmar’s military junta in Tokyo to discuss cooperation against Southeast Asia’s scam centers.

The statement followed testimony on 25 June by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Michael DeSombre before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in which he described scam centers operating across Southeast Asia as a grave threat to U.S. and regional allies’ national security, according to the statement.

The centers stole more than $12.5 billion from Americans last year, a 25 per cent increase from the year before, the statement said, citing a February 2026 United Nations report that found 300,000 people had been trafficked into Southeast Asia’s scam centers from around the world and subjected to severe human rights violations.

In Myanmar, the scam centers are tied to a broader conflict economy that funds the junta’s capacity to attack civilians, according to the statement, which said the military works with aligned armed groups to protect and profit from the centers.

The organizations said they were concerned to learn that U.S. officials met with junta representatives in Tokyo this past week to discuss potential law enforcement cooperation against the scam centers. Myra Dahgaypaw, a board member of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said cooperating with the junta on the issue was “like asking an arsonist to help put out a fire.”

DeSombre told the committee that U.S. policy over the past five years had not stopped the civil war or the killings and rights violations in Myanmar, and that the State Department continued to evaluate its approach based on conditions on the ground, according to the statement.

The statement pointed instead to the record of Myanmar’s ethnic resistance organizations and civil society groups, saying they have worked to dismantle scam centers and rescue trafficking victims. In December 2025, the Karen National Union raided the Shunda Park scam center, freeing thousands of people who had been held there, the statement said. Naw K’nyaw Paw, chairperson of the Karen Women’s Organization, said Myanmar’s resistance and civil society groups were “ready to work with the U.S. and other regional governments” to dismantle the centers.