NAYPYIDAW - Myanmar’s military-backed Union Parliament approved the Anti-Online Scam Bill on July 28.

The measure passed at a combined sitting of both houses after lawmakers approved amendments, Union Parliament Speaker Aung Lin Dwe announced during a televised session. Lower-house MP Aye Chan told AFP that the death-penalty provision remained in the approved bill. “The important parts of the bill remained the same,” he said.

The draft published in May prescribed 10 years to life imprisonment or death for violence, torture, unlawful arrest or detention, or cruel treatment. AFP reported that the approved provision applies when such abuse is used to force people into online scam work.

Under the draft, a death sentence is mandatory when the conduct causes a person’s death.

The May draft separately set terms of 10 years to life imprisonment and a possible fine for opening a scam centre, cryptocurrency fraud, recruiting or directing people to conduct scams, forced labour and scam-related human trafficking.

It would also establish an Anti-Scam Centre with a 24-hour hotline. The centre would apply a debit freeze to a suspected scammer’s account within 15 minutes, while banks could suspend reported suspicious accounts for up to 72 hours.

Banks, payment providers, telecommunications companies and internet providers would share information through a centralised database. Those provisions require confirmation against the amended final text.

The International Organization for Migration said scam compounds employ up to 300,000 people across Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. It estimated that tens of thousands had been trafficked, often through deceptive job advertisements, and said victims from more than 80 countries had been drawn into the operations.

More than 5,300 people were reportedly still confined in four compounds near Myanmar’s border with Thailand in June, according to the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance. The group said some compounds had not been dismantled or reached by rescue operations.

A joint committee presented findings on disputed provisions between the two houses at a July 21 parliamentary sitting. AFP’s July 28 passage report did not state when the measure would take effect.