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Myanmar’s Crime Resilience Gap Widens: A Global Cautionary Tale

As Myanmar marks three years since the military coup, the country’s situation has been deliberately avoided by donors and international partners. However, recent data from the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index reveals a stark reality: organized crime in Myanmar has significantly worsened, with the country now having the highest levels of organized criminality globally.

Rising Organized Crime

The index shows that Myanmar’s resilience to organized crime has weakened dramatically since its low ranking in 2021. The country’s criminality score jumped from 7.59 in 2021 to 8.15 in 2023, propelling it to the top of the global ranking.

Key Drivers of Organized Crime

  • Non-Renewable Resource Crimes: A surge in illegal rare earth mining after the coup contributed significantly to Myanmar’s rising organized crime levels.
  • Human Trafficking: Exacerbated by conflict and subsequent sanctions imposed by the international community, human trafficking has become a major concern.

Foreign Actors Fueling Crime

The index also highlights a significant upward trend for foreign actors, particularly Chinese actors operating in the country. Myanmar has the highest combined score for criminal actors globally, with state-embedded actors facilitating its drug markets.

  • State-Embedded Actors: Myanmar’s state-embedded actors have matched their score of 9 out of 10, indicating a high level of involvement in organized crime.
  • Synthetic Drugs: The country scores 10 for synthetic drugs, highlighting the severity of this issue.

Declining Resilience

The biggest shifts are seen in Myanmar’s ability to resist and withstand organized crime. The index shows that the more a country is affected by conflict or instability, the more likely it is to have reduced resilience to organized crime.

Key Indicators

  • International Cooperation: Myanmar’s international cooperation indicator fell from 5.0 to 2.0, indicating a significant decline in this area.
  • Community Resilience Capacity: The country’s community resilience capacity has also declined, contributing to its weakened resilience to organized crime.

Consequences of the Crime-Resilience Gap

The absence of scrutiny in Myanmar has contributed to the widening and deepening of the country’s crime-resilience gap. Rising criminality is having a reach and impact far beyond its borders.

Implications

  • Cyber Fraud: Cyber fraud in Myanmar is a manifestation of an internal, complex picture of intertwined criminality, vulnerability, and risk.
  • State-Embedded Criminality: The country’s state-embedded actors are facilitating illicit markets, including the drug market.

Prescribing a Tonic

Prescribing a tonic of acute diplomatic attention, rapid redirection of aid, and programming efforts that navigate complexity to create innovative solutions to address state-embedded criminality while supporting community resilience is an urgent imperative for the country.