Myanmar has enacted its first major criminal law under the new administration of President Min Aung Hlaing. The legislation introduces the death penalty for perpetrators of violence at online scam compounds.
The Anti-Online Scam Bill was passed during a joint session of both houses of parliament in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, 28 July 2026. It was approved just a few months after Min Aung Hlaing took office as president.
The law consists of 12 chapters and 63 articles. It was introduced on 3 June 2026 by Minister of Home Affairs Nyunt Win Swe. The bill was drafted by the Central Committee for the Supervision and Prevention of Online Scams and approved under the authority of Parliamentary Speaker Aung Lin Dwe.
The legislation imposes the death penalty on operators, guards, or managers of scam compounds who use violence, torture, illegal abduction, or arbitrary detention to force people to work for them, particularly when those acts result in a victim's death. Those found operating scam centers or committing cryptocurrency fraud face life imprisonment.
A Civilian President from the Commander-in-Chief's Seat
Min Aung Hlaing's status as Myanmar's "new president" is itself the outcome of a highly contested political process. He was nominated by parliament on 30 March 2026, elected on 3 April, and sworn into office on 10 April. The inauguration came five years after the 2021 military coup that he led to overthrow the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The election that brought him to the presidency was held in three phases between December 2025 and January 2026. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won 339 of the 420 contested seats, giving the new parliament more than 86 percent control by the military bloc.
The cabinet reflects the same balance of power. Of its 30 ministers, 28 are either active or retired military officers, or figures affiliated with the USDP.
In its June 2026 briefing, the International Crisis Group described the process as a consolidation of power rather than a political transition.
"The elections have consolidated military rule behind a constitutional façade, while leaving the drivers of armed conflict and economic decline largely unchanged," wrote Richard Horsey, Senior Adviser for Myanmar at the International Crisis Group.
The Bosses Sitting in Power
The new law targets scam-compound operators. But it does not touch one of the parties that field research suggests benefits most from the business: Myanmar's military itself and the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), an armed militia aligned with the regime.
According to estimates by the United States Institute of Peace, a single scam compound, Shwe Kokko, generates around US$192 million a year. That amount is split equally between the Myanmar military and the Karen BGF.
A company operating in another compound, KK Park, reportedly extracted more than US$100 million from victims in less than two years.
The expansion of these compounds continued even after Thailand cut electricity supplies to the area in 2023. Satellite imagery shows that Yatai New City added more than 100 new buildings between December 2022 and December 2024. KK Park added more than 20 buildings between February and December 2024.
Human rights groups warn that the new law gives the state sweeping digital surveillance powers. At the same time, it ignores the role of the BGF and pro-military militias that lease land to foreign criminal syndicates.
A Record That Has Not Been Erased
The scale of the problem the law is trying to address is enormous.
According to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released on July 2026, scam losses in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand reached between US$88.3 billion and US$114.1 billion in 2025. That was up from a range of US$18 billion to US$37 billion in 2023.
UNODC estimates that hundreds of industrial-scale scam centers in the region generate nearly US$40 billion in annual profits. Myanmar and Cambodia are the main operational hubs.
Earlier enforcement efforts have not significantly changed the landscape. A military operation against KK Park in October and November 2025 freed about 1,500 people through official Thai channels. That followed earlier operations that had released 7,000 workers.
Still, scam activity continued. Some workers moved to Cambodia, and Starlink satellite internet service was reportedly still operating at at least two scam-compound sites.
"Even if you destroy buildings, if you haven’t arrested the heads of the transnational syndicates behind this, seized their wealth and put them in jail, it’s not a real crackdown yet," said Jay Kritiya of the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance to PBS NewsHour.
Jason Tower of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime offered a similar assessment.
"There’s no real political will to crack down."
Pressure from the United States and China has been one of the main factors pushing Myanmar's government to announce a zero-tolerance policy toward the industry, from last year’s raids and destruction of KK Park to the passage of the first criminal law under Min Aung Hlaing's administration.
