Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

You’re broke.

Desperate for a break.

Then you see it—a dream job overseas.

Free travel.

Great pay.

A way out.

You apply.

You’re accepted.

You tell your friends you’re finally catching a break.

Soon, you’re on a plane to Bangkok.

Full of hope…

That hope dies fast.

At the airport, a smiling man greets you.

He offers to “help” with your visa, asks for your passport.

You hand it over without thinking.

He never gives it back.

He tells police you’re a tourist, then pushes you into a van.

The city lights fade.

Hours later, you wake beside a black river.

Men with rifles bark orders.

“Get in the boat.”

You cross into Myanmar.

Barbed wire. Floodlights.A compound the size of a small city.Guards everywhere. Cameras on every wall.

Your phone is gone.Your name erased.

You’ve been sold into modern slavery.

Inside, it looks almost normal—shops, offices, dorms.People whisper about “the black room.”No one says what happens there.

Your bunk is a metal frame in a windowless cell.Ten people to a room.Guards with stun batons patrol the halls.

The next morning, new bosses arrive—men in spotless shirts, expensive watches.They tell you the rules:

No breaks. No pay. No escape.

You “owe” them for your plane ticket.

They sit you at a computer.

“Your name is Alicia now,” the boss says.

Your new job: pretend to be a young woman online.Flirt. Build trust. Steal money.

You’re running what they call “pig butchering.”You fatten the mark with affection, then gut him clean.Crypto. Investments. False hope.

You want to vomit.You type anyway.

If you refuse, they’ll beat you.

You’ve seen it happen.

One man refused to scam an old widower.He came back from the black room covered in burns.

“They shock us like dogs,” he whispered.

Others collapse from exhaustion or heat.Some disappear completely.

Rumors spread:

Sixteen people killed for trying to escape.

One man wakes up missing a kidney.

You work twenty hours a day.You forget your real name.They promise freedom if you earn $200,000—but no one ever leaves.

Then, one night, something breaks.Gunfire. Sirens. Smoke.Thai troops storm the gates.

A soldier shouts, “You’re safe now!”

You fall to your knees.You’ve been trapped for five months.

Two hundred fifty people are rescued that night.You’re herded into a camp—filthy, crowded, but free.

You wait weeks for your embassy to find you.When the plane finally lifts off, you cry silently into the dark.

You left home full of hope.You return hollowed out.

Back home, some people don’t believe you.They say you should have known better.They have no idea.

Sixteen of the crime bosses were sentenced to death in China.

They stole $1.4 billion.They stole lives.

But new camps are already rising.

You survived.Others won’t.

Tell this story so someone else doesn’t vanish.

Until next time

Dancer, Writer, Buddhist

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