#rp25 Speakers Khesrau Behroz & Sören Musyal: How Human Traffickers in Asia Are Making Billions Through Modern Slavery

For years, industrial parks have been emerging in Myanmar, gradually growing into cities – cities built on modern-day slavery. These are places where people are held captive and forced to do one thing all day long: scam victims out of billions – highly organised, professional scam.

“Pig butchering” is the term used for a scam technique in which fraudsters first “fatten up” their victims and then fleece them. It’s a cynical name for what has become a global threat, where most of the scammers operate out of countries like Myanmar – and many do so against their will. They are held in massive industrial compounds and coerced into working in highly organised, professional scam operations targeting people worldwide.

For the new season of the podcast Legion, journalists Khesrau Behroz and Sören Musyal travelled to Thailand and the Burmese border to investigate this phenomenon on the ground. In this talk, they will offer exclusive insights into their research ahead of the official release.

Khesrau Behroz is the host, writer and producer of acclaimed podcasts such as Cui Bono: WTF Happened to Ken Jebsen?, Noise, Legion: Hacking Anonymous, Cui Bono: Who’s Afraid of Drachenlord?, SchwarzRotGold: Mesut Özil Visiting Friends, and Legion: Most Wanted – Where is RAF Terrorist Daniela Klette?. His work has been honoured with the Grimme Online Award, the German Reporter Award, the German Podcast Award and the Pop Culture Award. He is co-founder and managing director of the Berlin-based production company Undone, which creates journalistic and narrative content across media platforms.

Sören Musyal is a sociologist and investigative journalist. He produces podcasts at Undone and has received numerous awards for his work, including the Grimme Online Award and the German Reporter Award. Together with Patrick Stegemann, he published the book The Right-Wing Mobilisation with Ullstein.