What do we know about human trafficking and scam compounds in Southeast Asia (2020–2025)? A qualitative meta-synthesis of coercive deviant enterprises

Abstract

This study synthesizes peer-reviewed research on human trafficking linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia (2020 to 2025) to understand their organizational, spatial, and coercive infrastructures. Applying a Qualitative Meta-Synthesis (QMS) protocol, it integrates findings from fifty publications. These outputs comprise forty-five journal articles, three conference papers, one book chapter, and one monograph. As a consolidated evidentiary base, this QMS constitutes the first systematic review to integrate scam-compound economies into broader research on trafficking and forced labor in Southeast Asia. The included studies employ qualitative, mixed-methods, and conceptual approaches, drawing on survivor interviews, NGO and law enforcement perspectives, and legal analyses. Results show that scam compounds function as industrialized socio-technical systems embedded within licit-illicit economies, exploiting digital infrastructures, deregulated Special Economic Zones, and migration precarity. Cross-study patterns highlight hierarchical divisions of labor, coercion, and liminal victim-offender roles. Divergences reflect local political economies and adaptive organizational forms. The synthesis situates scam compounds within the broader history of illicit economies. The study demonstrates the value of the QMS for advancing theoretical coherence in fragmented literatures on deviance.