The Council of the European Union has imposed asset freezes and travel bans on seven individuals and three entities linked to scam centres in Southeast Asia, citing serious human rights violations including human trafficking, torture, and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The measures, adopted on 30 July 2026 under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, target the Prince Holding Group and its chairman Chen Zhi, the Jin Bei Group and its chairman Zhu Zhongbiao, and the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), a Burmese armed group operating in Myanmar's Karen State near the Thai border. The EU says these actors are responsible for running or facilitating compounds where victims are trafficked, held against their will, and forced to perpetrate cryptocurrency investment scams and other frauds targeting people worldwide. The listings also cover abuse, torture, kidnapping, and illegal detention reported inside the centres. EU citizens and companies are now barred from making funds available to the listed parties, and the individuals cannot enter or transit through EU territory. The legal acts were published in the Official Journal of the EU.
The decision builds on the EU's broader sanctions framework. The Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime was established on 7 December 2020 to address genocide, crimes against humanity, and other serious human rights violations or abuses. The EU has repeatedly voiced concern about the proliferation of scam centres in Southeast Asia, which it links to transnational organised crime, trafficking in persons, forced criminality, arbitrary detention, and torture. In a related move on 29 October 2024, the Council listed three individuals and one entity over scam operations threatening the peace, security, and stability of Myanmar and the region. The new listings extend that approach by targeting the corporate structures and armed groups that enable the scam industry, rather than only individual operators.
The sanctions are likely to have a significant impact on the targeted conglomerates, which operate multi-billion-dollar businesses in Cambodia and Myanmar. The Prince Holding Group, for example, builds scam centre compounds through front companies, and the DKBA controls territory around Myawaddy where such centres operate under its protection. For EU-based companies and financial institutions, the asset freeze creates new compliance obligations, requiring them to screen business partners and transactions against the updated list. Victims of the scam centres, many of whom are trafficked from third countries, may benefit indirectly if the measures disrupt the criminal networks, though the EU has not announced specific victim support measures. The listings also signal a tougher EU stance on human rights abuses in the region, which could affect diplomatic relations with Cambodia and Myanmar, both of which have previously rejected such sanctions as politically motivated. The Council has not indicated whether further listings are planned, but the decision follows a pattern of expanding the regime to cover new forms of abuse, including forced criminality in the digital economy.