Fourteen young women from Pang Laung (Pinlaung) Township have fallen victim to a human trafficking network that turned promises of stable employment into a nightmare of captivity and exploitation.

The women, aged between 18 and 25, were recruited from Taung Lay Village in March by an online broker who promised them well-paying jobs in Muse, a key border town on the Myanmar-China frontier. Upon arrival, however, they discovered a very different reality. The broker—a woman who traveled from Lashio to recruit them—confiscated their mobile phones and national identity cards and held them captive in a warehouse for more than a month.

“When they came to take the girls, they promised them good jobs, but they never specified what those jobs actually were,” said Ko Soe*, a local resident familiar with the case.

The women eventually realized they were being prepared for trafficking into China. Seizing an opportunity to escape, 10 of them managed to flee and contact their families. On June 4, following an urgent appeal from village leaders, local residents traveled to Muse and successfully brought the women home.

The whereabouts of the remaining four women remain unknown after traffickers reportedly moved them to an undisclosed location. When contacted by SHAN regarding the status of the missing women, the Muse Anti-Human Trafficking Police Force declined to provide any information.

The rise in trafficking cases is closely linked to Myanmar’s post-2021 economic collapse, which has devastated rural livelihoods and left many young people with limited employment opportunities. Pang Laung Township, currently affected by conflict involving the military junta, the Pa-O National Organization (PNO), and various revolutionary forces, has seen its agricultural sector struggle under rising costs and disrupted supply chains.

“There is no work in the village, so young people go looking for jobs—and that is when they get lured,” Ko Soe explained. “This is the first time so many young people from Pang Laung have been targeted in this way.”

“We can’t even recover the money we invest in our crops,” said Sai Leng*, a local farmer. “Because of the economic crisis, many young people try to go to Thailand. Those who cannot afford the travel costs often fall for fake job offers in China and become victims of criminal gangs.”

Muse has emerged as a major hub for human trafficking and online scam operations, a crisis exacerbated by the presence of competing armed groups. Activists describe the town as a dangerous “last hope” for thousands of displaced people fleeing conflict in areas such as Tangyan, Namtu, Hsipaw, and Lashio.

Many job seekers are funneled through brokers who arrange border passes for employment in Chinese factories in Ruili and Jiegao. However, these seemingly legitimate recruitment channels are frequently used to facilitate illegal trafficking.

“If someone offers a job, people need to investigate carefully,” Sai Leng cautioned. “We cannot stop them from leaving because there is no work here, but I urge them to verify everything before they go.”

The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) confirmed to SHAN that trafficking of women into China for forced marriage and childbearing has increased sharply since the conflict escalated. Women aged 18 to 40 remain the primary targets.

San Htoi, a spokesperson for KWAT, said monitoring trafficking networks has become increasingly difficult.

“Since late 2022, it has become remarkably difficult to track how victims are being transported into China,” she said.

According to a 2024 KWAT report, the reach of trafficking networks is no longer limited to border areas. More than half of the victims documented between 2019 and 2023 originated from regions such as Yangon, indicating that human trafficking has become a nationwide threat affecting women across Myanmar.

Note: Some names in this article have been changed for security reasons.