Attachments
Southeast Asia is experiencing one of the most complex intersections of displacement and human trafficking globally. Political upheaval, armed conflict, human rights abuses, economic instability, and environmental degradation have uprooted millions across the region. Many displaced people live without legal status or adequate protections, making them highly susceptible to exploitation and trafficking.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Southeast Asia is a major origin, transit, and destination region for human trafficking. Displaced individuals are among the most at-risk, as traffickers prey on their desperation and limited options.
Under international law, trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means for the purpose of exploitation. Displaced populations, who often lack legal protections and economic opportunities, fit squarely within the profile of those most vulnerable to trafficking networks.
Human trafficking across Southeast Asia is deeply intertwined with the region’s growing displacement crises. Refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and climate migrants face severe risks of trafficking for forced labor, sexual exploitation, and, increasingly, coerced participation in online scamming operations. This policy brief examines the link between displacement and trafficking in Southeast Asia, identifies key gaps in protection, and outlines urgent actions needed by governments and international actors to protect vulnerable populations.
Regional Overview: Displacement Trends and Trafficking Risks
Multiple displacement crises persist across Southeast Asia:
Myanmar remains the epicenter of Southeast Asia’s displacement crisis. Since the 2021 military coup, over 3.5 million people have been internally displaced due to armed conflict, political repression, and economic collapse. The situation deteriorated further following a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28, 2025, which killed more than 3,700 people, injured over 5,100, and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings across six regions. The quake caused extensive surface ruptures and infrastructure damage.
Despite a declared ceasefire to facilitate relief efforts, military operations, including airstrikes, have continued in quake-affected areas, hindering humanitarian access and exacerbating civilian suffering. Ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar face an increased threat amidst the chaotic recovery.
In late 2024, Thailand faced historic flooding intensified by climate change and the La Niña phenomenon, displacing approximately 150,000 families. The agricultural sector suffered substantial losses, impacting the livelihoods of many.
Similarly, Malaysia contended with severe monsoon-induced floods in December 2024, leading to the displacement of over 90,000 people. Coastal flooding, exacerbated by rising sea levels and heavy rains, continues to threaten vulnerable communities.
In both Thailand and Malaysia, displaced individuals, including refugees and those without legal status, often reside in informal settlements with limited access to legal protections, making them susceptible to exploitation and trafficking.
The Philippines, particularly the Mindanao region, faces a dual challenge of ongoing conflict and climate-induced disasters. In early 2024, torrential rains triggered floods and landslides, displacing nearly 97,000 families. Between 2014 and 2023, the Philippines recorded nearly 43 million disaster-related displacements, the highest in Southeast Asia.
The convergence of armed conflict, poverty, and environmental degradation in the Philippines exacerbates vulnerabilities, leaving displaced populations at heightened risk of human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
Rising sea levels are becoming major drivers of displacement across Southeast Asia, compounding existing vulnerabilities linked to conflict and poverty. Two of the most severely affected areas are Vietnam’s Mekong Delta and Indonesia’s low-lying archipelago regions.
The Mekong Delta, often called the "rice bowl" of Vietnam, is facing existential threats due to rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, and increasingly erratic weather patterns. It is one of the most vulnerable areas in the world to climate-induced displacement, with projections suggesting that up to one-third of the delta could be underwater by 2050. Saltwater contamination has already displaced thousands of farmers and threatens the livelihoods of millions.
Many residents are migrating toward urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City, but without legal protections or support systems, IDPs often fall into precarious, low-wage employment conditions that heighten their vulnerability to labor trafficking.
As the world’s largest archipelagic country, Indonesia faces acute risks from rising sea levels. In cities like Jakarta, which is sinking at one of the fastest rates globally, frequent flooding has already displaced thousands of residents.
In addition, smaller islands in Indonesia, such as Pari Island and parts of the Riau Archipelago, are experiencing permanent land loss, forcing communities to abandon their homes and livelihoods.
Indonesia's government is planning large-scale relocation efforts, such as moving the national capital to Nusantara, in part due to climate risks. However, local and marginalized populations often lack formal relocation options and instead move informally, increasing their exposure to trafficking networks operating in coastal and port areas.
Across the region, the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue but also a humanitarian and human rights emergency. Refugees and displaced people are often confined to informal settlements, remote border areas, or overcrowded, squalid camps, where they remain invisible to formal protection mechanisms and vulnerable to exploitation. The combination of forced migration, weak labor protections, and limited access to social services creates fertile ground for trafficking, forced labor, and other abuses.
Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia
Many individuals looking for better job opportunities, livelihoods, and circumstances often end up in trafficking situations. Human trafficking in the region has evolved with changing economic and technological landscapes.
Forced labor and child labor, particularly in the fishing, agriculture, construction, and domestic work sectors, are common in the region due to weak worker protections and the lack of work authorization for many displaced people. Victims and survivors often endure brutal conditions.
Women and girls displaced by armed conflict and natural disasters are often preyed upon for sex trafficking and forced marriage. A rise in child trafficking in the region is linked to the alarming increase in online child pornography.
Forced criminality has emerged as a major trend, particularly the coercion of migrants into working for online scam operations. Reports highlight thousands of individuals trafficked into scam compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar’s border regions, and Laos, often facing violence and torture.
Criminal networks often collaborate across borders, exploiting weak governance, corruption, and gaps in migration management systems. Prolonged stays in camps with limited services and without the ability to work can push individuals toward risky job offers, often ending in exploitation or trafficking. These trafficking routes increasingly overlap with displacement corridors.
Case Studies
Rohingya refugees trafficked across the Bay of Bengal:
Since their mass displacement from Myanmar in 2017, Rohingya refugees have faced extreme vulnerability to human trafficking networks. Many have been trafficked by sea across the Bay of Bengal, often lured by promises of safety or jobs in neighboring countries like Malaysia or Thailand. Instead, traffickers cram refugees into dangerous, overcrowded boats, exposing them to starvation, abuse, and drowning. Survivors report being sold into slavery aboard fishing vessels, where they are forced to work for months or years without pay under brutal conditions. Others are trafficked into forced labor camps or brothels, often with no means of escape and under constant threat of violence. The lack of legal status and safe migration pathways leave Rohingya refugees with few options and make them easy targets for organized trafficking rings.
Myanmar migrants trapped in scam compounds:
Following Myanmar’s 2021 military coup and the resulting economic collapse, many young migrants sought work opportunities abroad, particularly in neighboring Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Human traffickers exploit this desperation by advertising fake job offers online, promising high-paying positions in customer service or tech companies. Upon arrival, migrants are transported to scam compounds—heavily guarded facilities where they are forced to carry out online scams, such as romance fraud or cryptocurrency fraud, often targeting foreign victims. Held under armed guard, many endure beatings, torture, and threats against their families to coerce compliance. Escape attempts are rare and dangerous, and victims are often sold between compounds like commodities. This trafficking model has become one of the most disturbing and sophisticated forms of forced labor in Southeast Asia today and is spreading globally.
The vulnerability created by displacement is compounded by broader regional failures to uphold refugee rights and protect migrants.
Gaps in Protection and Response
Several systemic gaps exacerbate the risk of trafficking for displaced populations.
- Victim Identification Failures: Many anti-trafficking programs do not prioritize refugee and migrant populations for proactive identification and support.
- Restricted Asylum Access: Few Southeast Asian countries are parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Refugees are often treated as illegal migrants and denied protection.
- Limited Legal Aid and Language Services: Without access to information in their own languages or legal representation, displaced individuals struggle to assert their rights.
- Punitive Approaches to Victimization: In many cases, trafficking survivors are arrested for immigration offenses or criminal activities they were coerced into, rather than being treated as victims.
Trafficking interventions often fail to meaningfully integrate refugee protection or consider the specific vulnerabilities of displaced populations.
Recommendations
Regional Governments Must:
- Strengthen and Implement Victim Protection Protocols: Ensure that displaced persons and refugees are systematically included in trafficking screening efforts.
- Provide Legal Status: Create temporary protection statuses or humanitarian visas for displaced individuals to reduce vulnerability to trafficking.
- Expand Safe Migration Channels: Develop legal labor migration pathways to reduce reliance on smugglers.
- Train Border Officials: Equip immigration and law enforcement personnel to identify and appropriately refer trafficking victims among migrant populations.
- Reduce the Risk of Work in Unregulated Markets: Provide work authorization documents to displaced individuals.
International Donors and Agencies Must:
- Prioritize Displacement-Linked Trafficking in Funding: Support programs that serve both displaced communities and trafficking survivors.
- Strengthen Regional Collaboration: Invest in cross-border anti-trafficking initiatives that account for displaced populations’ specific needs.
- Support Legal Aid Services: Fund organizations that provide culturally competent, trauma-informed legal representation for displaced and trafficked persons.
Conclusion
The displacement crisis in Southeast Asia is not just a humanitarian tragedy—it is a driver of human trafficking. Protecting refugees and displaced persons, whether displacement occurs due to climate shocks, political upheaval, or human rights abuses, is essential to disrupting trafficking networks and upholding human rights.
A siloed approach that separates trafficking from displacement risks misses the heart of the issue. Governments and international actors must act urgently and collaboratively to close protection gaps, create safe pathways, and ensure that displacement does not become a trafficking sentence.