The city is making headlines in regional newspapers as a hive of scams, abduction, and human trafficking, with governments increasingly under pressure to respond to emergency appeals from families and victims.
Casino financiers have been moving out of the former Portuguese colony since at least 2016 to less regulated territories, such as Sihanoukville and Poipet in Cambodia, and later over Thailand's borders with Laos and Myanmar, creating countless unregulated casinos beyond any rule of law.
Naypyitaw [Myanmar], September 7 (ANI): Rising incidents of human trafficking have alarmed human rights activists, with reports that the Shwe Kokko New City in southeast Myanmar's Karen State has become a people-trafficking hub.
Nay Pyi Taw [Myanmar], September 3 (ANI): The presence of Chinese-run casinos in the centre of an armed conflict zone in Karen State is raising serious concerns for the peace process, suggests Aung Zaw in The Irrawaddy.