A Conversation with Judah Tana – The Diplomat

Judah Tana has spent the past two decades in humanitarian work along the Thailand-Myanmar border, where criminal syndicates have revolutionized 21st-century human trafficking and slavery into an industry with global business is worth billions of dollars.

Myanmar, like Cambodia and Laos, has also been singled out by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) as the epicenter for the fraudulent complexes run by organized crime, which, according to Tana, have proliferated beyond all expectations, spreading across cities.

As the founder and international director of Global Advance Projects, Tana has rescued hundreds of victims who were trafficked, severely tortured, starved, witnessed killings, jumped from buildings – and arrived in Myanmar from more than 60 countries as far away as Uganda and Morocco.

An Australian citizen, Tana spoke to The Diplomat's Luke Hunt in Mae Sot, on the Thailand-Myanmar border, about the scale of these fraudulent towns, the inadequacies of local law enforcement and the costs involved in get people out. “It’s hard to know where to go next,” he said.

Tana explains why governments are two years behind the logistical and technological capabilities of Chinese crime syndicates. As a strategic adviser for rescue operations, he urged the United States to take a much tougher stance through sanctions and laws.

This would at least allow other countries to follow a much-needed, coordinated international crackdown on crime syndicates and their cities, where trafficking victims continue to be forced into fraud with little chance of rescue.