What Do We Know About Human Trafficking and Scam Compounds in Southeast Asia (2020–2025)? A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis of Coercive Deviant Enterprises

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…