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The Dark Room
A Guardian investigation shines a light on what happens inside the Golden Triangle's cyberscam compounds after the shifts end. The story features “Sarah,” a 39-year-old former shopkeeper from Uganda, was lured to Laos in 2022 with the promise of a social media management job, then sold between three compounds in the Golden Triangle. A few months in, she and three other women endured days of sexual abuse in what workers called the "dark room," where men were forced to rape them as punishment for refusing to scam more victims. She eventually escaped while in labor, sneaking past an absent guard one night in October 2023, her pregnancy hidden from the Chinese bosses she feared would kill her if they found out. The investigation says women inside these compounds, run mostly by Chinese and Taiwanese syndicates, have sexual violence and coerced fake-profile photos stacked on top of the forced labor and beatings male workers also endure.
Read more: The Guardian
Police Phone a Friend on Scam Centers
Lao police have arrested more than 900 people connected to scam operations since June 1, with raids running almost daily from Bokeo in the north to Sekong in the south. Officials sent 170 Chinese nationals back through the Boten checkpoint on June 24. The sweep has turned up a strange cast, including Ukrainian and Ethiopian nationals caught at a karaoke venue in Khammouane and a romance-scam ring in Vientiane Capital working Chinese women online. Lao Public Security Minister Vanthong Kongmany met Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Sokha in Phnom Penh and asked Cambodia to send officials to share what they know. Sokha had a warning, saying that after Cambodia's big enforcement pushes, syndicates changed tack to renting small guesthouses and private homes in residential neighborhoods. Vanthong said that this change is already happening in Laos too.
Read more: Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia advice), Laotian Times (arrests), Laotian Times (Sekong raids)
Kip Catches a Break
June inflation came in at 7.4 percent, down from 10.2 percent in April and below the government's eight percent ceiling, as lower fuel prices and a steadier kip took pressure off household budgets. The figures came with a 5 percent GDP reading for the first half of 2026 and foreign reserves enough to cover more than five months of imports. Revenue collection is now ahead of the full-year target with half a year still to run. The government also nearly doubled the monthly tax-free income threshold to LAK 2.5 million, about USD 113, up from LAK 1.3 million. Rates above the line still run from 5 to 25 percent.
Read more: Laotian Times (cabinet figures), Laotian Times (tax brackets)
Fuel Holiday Ends at the Pump
Regular gasoline excise increased to 25 percent on June 24, reversing the emergency cut to 15 percent that had been in place since March. Diesel picked up a new 5 percent after three months at zero. The expiry was baked in from the start, as the March relief was always scheduled to expire at the end of June. Pump prices in Vientiane are LAK 30,690 per liter for regular, USD 1.38, and LAK 24,560 for diesel, USD 1.11. Premium gasoline is trading for LAK 35,840 and priced off its own CIF value. The country is still getting almost all of its refined fuel from Thailand, by way of a PTT supply deal signed in June, but some Russian petroleum has been tentatively routed through Vietnamese ports that Moscow says it is still only "considering."
Read more: Laotian Times
Mining Equipment Nabbed
Authorities have impounded 72 excavators, three dump trucks, a loader, 10 boats, and five pick-up trucks so far this year while breaking up illegal mining operations in 12 provinces. Both Lao and foreign nationals were arrested along the way. The reveal came out of a two-day government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone; Deputy Minister Kheungkham Keonouchanh briefed reporters afterward.
Read more: The Star
Zoo on Paper, Bile Factory in Practice
Lao authorities and Free the Bears rescued 27 Asiatic black bears from a Chinese-owned facility that was registered as a zoo but was running as a commercial bile extraction setup. The rescue, possibly the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, found bears aged one to three, almost certainly poached as cubs from the wild. The site was built to hold up to 200 animals, so the shutdown is of an industrial-scale operation that was still growing. All 27 animals have been moved to the Luang Prabang Wildlife Sanctuary, where they will join more than 150 other bears Free the Bears has rescued over nearly a quarter century. Laos has since closed the legal loopholes that long protected older bile farms, though the trade is moving to Facebook and other platforms that are harder to police.
Read more: Mongabay
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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