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This investigative series examines social issues and trends around Asia, including suicide, gender violence and limb-lengthening surgeries.
2017
Paedophiles worldwide are hunting for children to perform sex shows on webcams and are homing in on the Philippines, where children as young as three months old are being abused for money. In this documentary, the team follows the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an agency of the Philippine government responsible for cases that affect the nation.
In the tribal belts of India’s Northeast, a 48 year-old widow is branded a witch and brutally lynched by her own people. In another part of the region, a witch-hunt survivor, banished from her own village for over 10 years, prepares to reclaim her life lost in superstition. Witch-hunt Diaries is the story of these two women, caught in a terrifying, medieval ritual that claims over a hundred lives in India every year.
Today more than 50,000 North Korean men and women are enslaved in 40 countries. Most of their salary is stolen from them to keep the Supreme Leader in power. North Korea and the countries that play host to their workers have been able to keep this modern-day slavery a secret until now.
2015
Orphanages in Cambodia are big business. But instead of helping vulnerable children, many are doing exactly the opposite. This film focuses on foreign nationals posing as child protectors to hide their dark, criminal activity. By working alongside the NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, the production team gained undercover footage of paedophiles in action in Cambodia.
Undercover Asia follows the trail of a runaway Thai monk accused of financial and sexual misconduct. The investigation includes a woman who comes out of hiding to tell her story about how the monk allegedly fathered her child.
A story of discovery and revelation of MERS which is more deadly than SARS and recent swine flu.This documentary tells how the death of one man in Saudi Arabia sparked an international scientific investigation to uncover one of the world's most deadly diseases.
A human organ is sold on the global black market every hour. This illegal organ trade is worth up to $1.2 billion US dollars a year. In this episode, we journey to Manila to investigate this secret and criminal trade.
Pneumoconiosis or black lung disease is the worst occupational disease to plague China. 10,000 new cases are diagnosed every year and employers are doing nothing to protect or compensate their workers. All they can wait for is a slow and painful death.
Myanmar's friendless Rohingya people live in misery but the government is offering them a chance at citizenship. We take a look at government's strict conditions and speak to Rohingya who would rather risk their lives and flee.
Two teenage cousins are found hanging from a mango tree. The parents allege a brutal caste crime where the girls were raped and murdered. But soon a web of lies turns an open and shut case into a classic murder mystery. Will the voices under the mango tree ever reveal their secrets?
There are millions who are diagnosed with Internet Addiction Disorder and these 'web junkies' are forced to check into so-called rehabilitation centres without scientific basis.There are disturbing reports on an increasing numbers of deaths happened in these centres. What is their real motive?
The documentary opens the door to the complex issue of women trafficking from Vietnam to China. It explores the different facets of an industry that stems from men's simple desire to start a family, but left uncontrolled, destroys the lives of thousands of women who are forced into these marriages.
This is the story of thousands of girls across India who are stolen from their homes and forced into sex work, purchased as brides and sold into affluent homes as domestic slaves.Half of these girls who are trafficked never come home.
Drug lords rules the roost at the New Bilibid Prison. A 300 strong multi-agency taskforce assemble outside the prison for a massive raid.But they're not prepared for what they are about to discover.
2014
2017
Richard Huckle is one of the world's most heinous child sexual predators. He is guilty of almost 100 counts of child sexual abuses in Malaysia. His exploits were anonymously put onto the dark web for pedophiles from all over the world. This online presence would lead to his arrest.
40,000 people in Japan die alone in their homes every year. We will follow Hirotsugu Masuda the CEO of a specialist 'Lonely Death' cleaning company, as he and his team go on the job.
Despite his own ordeal at the hands of Abu Sayyaf, journalist Baker Atyani returns to the Philippines to find out why they are prospering. As he tries to search for a negotiator for the latest victims, a breakthrough comes when he meets intelligence officers searching for Baker's own abductors.
India is facing a massive crisis in its healthcare sector. There is approximately 1 registered doctor for every 1700 patients. This severe shortage of qualified doctors, an ineffective public healthcare system, lack of legal enforcement and corruption has lead to the rampant growth of quacks in the country.
Nearly 90% of the estimated 143 million children in orphanages worldwide are not orphans at all. They are systematically bought, coerced, and stolen away from their birth families. The adoption industry is a huge market driven by money where orphans are ‘manufactured’.
Undercover Asia goes inside President Duterte's war on drugs and uncovers stories of Filipinos who are brutally affected by a campaign that has claimed more than 7000 lives by Jan 2017. Will a merciless war on drug addicts and dealers solve the problems of the Philippines?
In China, divorce rates have almost doubled in the last decade, with many couples splitting up due to a third party. With more married men taking up lovers and mistresses, China is seeing the rise of an unexpected industry – professional Mistress Busters who are hired by wives to save their marriage.
Myanmar’s vast and illicit drugs trade is devastating local communities in the country’s war-torn border regions. ‘Drug Vigilantes’ follows a fast growing movement of militant Christian vigilantes trying to fight back against this deadly trade, into a chaotic world of addiction, fear and violence.
In Pakistan, over 1000 women are killed every year in the name of honour – and one case made the world take notice. Social media star, Qandeel Baloch’s bold and sexy videos challenged convention and shocked a nation. But in conservative Pakistan, a woman’s actions can have fatal consequences.
2018
In the small town of Paracale in the Philippines, we uncover the dangerous and illegal world of small-scale gold mining. We witness how poor villagers risk their lives to plunge 30 feet underwater into narrow death trap pits as they search for gold – their only means of earning a living.
Hidden behind locked doors, tortured and abused by their employers, child servants in Myanmar face many dangers. “Adopted into Slavery” investigates the murky trade of children sent away or sold into bondage by their parents, exposing the suffering faced by Myanmar’s most invisible and vulnerable.
Big Tobacco provides jobs for millions of Indonesians, but these jobs come at a cost for hundreds of children working in tobacco fields. Child-workers like Geger, Aning, and Sisil suffer from the effects of nicotine poisoning and pesticides as they toil to supply to the wealthiest cigarette brands.
For generations, drugs have plagued the fishermen on Malaysia's east coast. Is it the fishing culture, men making bad choices, or are there more sinister forces at play? Where are the drugs from? Will the authorities succeed in controlling the drug problem?
14 January 2016 – Jakarta was hit by the region’s very first ISIS attack. The men responsible were radicalised by Indonesia’s most radical cleric Aman Abdurrahman while in prison. In an exclusive interview, we hear from the radical cleric, who controls his extremist network from behind bars.
Degree Mill exposes an epic scandal of fraud and exploitation. At its centre is Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, the alleged mastermind behind the global sale of bogus degrees. Thousands of people have paid millions for worthless bits of paper. And some have used their fake degrees to get real jobs.
In Heist, we piece together the untold story of how cyber criminals stole US$81million from the Bangladesh government, transfer the money through fake bank accounts in Manila, and then make the money disappear on the gambling floors of high-end casinos in Philippines. Could a nation state be behind all this?
Space technology and slavery don’t often go hand-in-hand. One provides the freedoms of the information age, while the other signifies the ultimate lack of liberty. But a revolutionary use of satellite technology could be a breakthrough in tackling one of the world’s dirty hidden secrets.
2019
Cancer patients in China desperate for targeted drugs are turning to India. But they face many risks as they navigate the web of shady manufacturers and gray areas in the drug market.
Meet "The Doctor", who has helped drug dealers, criminals and terrorists move freely across borders, often to deadly effect. We get exclusive access to one of the world’s most notorious passport forgers, as he speaks to us from inside the prison walls in Thailand.
Why is the farming of pangasius in Vietnam so controversial, especially in the West? We investigate the mass production of this fish also known as dory, basa fish, and catfish.
Maldives is known as a tourist paradise, but the locals live a very different life here. What are the social and political forces that are turning their young men to terrorism?
Fishing ships from North Korea, discovered with dead bodies onboard, have been washing up on Japan's shores. We investigate why there has been a spike in the number of these"ghost ships".
Every year, nearly 100,000 Japanese vanish without a trace. They are known as johatsu, or “evaporated people”. What drives them to engineer their own disappearances?
2020
What does it mean to fight an impossible battle in a city full of violence, fear and uncertainty? Undercover Asia examines the Hong Kong protests through the lens of those caught in the middle: The police force, once Asia's finest, now the most hated in Hong Kong. How does the prolonged violence and harassment affect them and their families?
In 2018 China stops importing recyclables, creating global chaos and flooding Southeast Asian countries with unwanted plastic. For Indonesia, battling its own waste problems, is this the last straw?
Many Filipinos desire to have a lighter skin tone, and they want it fast. Their go-to fix: creams and injections that are increasingly popular despite health warnings on their use.
In November 2019, India's capital city, Delhi plunges into an air pollution crisis. As winter 2020 approaches, can Delhi prevent another airpocalypse?
Every minute, South Korea's household debt rises by US$90,000. Korean households are the most indebted in Asia, but they're still splashing out. Will COVID-19 finally tip them over the edge?
Non-consensual pornography is fast on the rise in Singapore. These private and intimate images are uploaded and shared on the Internet without consent, invading privacy and destroying lives. What will it take to stop the spread?
In the last decade, the Philippines won 9 international crowns, which triggered a surge in the number of beauty pageants and pageant hopefuls. But as more and more vie for attention in an increasingly crowded space, these pageants have become fertile hunting grounds for sexual predators. Undercover Asia strips away the glitz and glamour to expose how pageants are enabling exploitation to fester.
Counterfeiting syndicates are no longer just faking handbags and luxury items. They are now gunning for everyday products you use and consume - from health supplements to cosmetics, fever pills to hard liquor. Undercover Asia heads to Malaysia to investigate a spike in reports of these counterfeit products in the market.
In March 2019, an industrial town in the southern Malaysian state of Johor was poisoned. An illegal dumping of toxic waste caused more than 4,000 people to fall ill. We look at what happened and meet the men, women and children who were directly affected by the pollution crisis.
For decades, thousands of vulnerable migrants have been enslaved onboard untraceable Thai fishing boats lingering far out in international waters. Governments are now cracking down on this brutal industry with new rules being put in place. But as the world's insatiable appetite for low cost seafood persists, perpetrators are finding ways to navigate the restrictions.
2023
In Singapore, about 170 pregnant domestic helpers are sent home every year, but actual figures could be higher because many turn to illegal abortion methods to avoid losing their jobs. Is there a better way to deal with maid pregnancies?
In India, nearly half the deliveries in private hospitals are done through C-sections. That's 3 times the rate that the WHO recommends.Are millions of mums being forced into unnecessary C-sections?
Highly celebrated in South Korea. Empowering poor women in India. Banned in China. Why have Mukbang eating videos caused such a stir?
To score well in China's exams, students had to go for hours of tuition until a ban was imposed. Kids should be enjoying carefree childhoods now. Except tuition never disappeared.
Cannabis is now legal in Thailand. As research show the impact of cannabis use on the growing brains of minors and young adults, is the kingdom trading its future while cashing in on the Green Rush?
Some herald it as the ultimate solution to the tobacco crisis. Others believe that it could trigger a new public health crisis of its own. Why has vaping, the purportedly safer alternative to smoking, caused such polarising views?
Every year, more than 100,000 butterflies are shipped across the globe, sold as collectibles. What drives this obsession? How do protected butterfly species make their way across borders, undetected?
In Indonesia, informal gold miners are relying on mercury to extract gold from its ore. Fueled by crime and corruption, we reveal how the toxic metal and its illegal trade is poisoning miners slowly.
Between 2022 and 2023, over 300 children in Gambia, Uzbekistan and Indonesia died after they consumed cough syrup. It sent shockwaves around the world. Investigations revealed toxic ingredients in them. Diethylene and Ethylene Glycol are deadly chemicals which should never be found in medicine. The cough syrups were manufactured by pharmaceutical companies in India and Indonesia. The manufacturing firms deny wrongdoing but, in the months to follow, the findings would open up a pandora's box of dirty truths.
The Kanjuruhan stadium tragedy of October 2022 killed 135 people. We investigate Indonesia's ultra football fan clubs to see why they're the most extreme in Asia, and the reasons behind the disaster.
2022
A grisly find at a Chengdu delivery depot blows the lid off a whole industry built on the misery of puppies and kittens.
Two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigate how to stop racial abuse faced by East and Southeast Asians in Britain.
The rising influence of beauty bloggers and beauty apps in China is sparking a growing interest in extreme and weird plastic surgeries.
After years of success in slowing high fertility rates, the fight to make contraception readily available in the Philippines is dealt a massive blow by COVID-19. Who bears the brunt of this setback?
India's 18-month long school closure is fueling an unprecedented education crisis. Millions of students are dropping out or can no longer catch up. Their future hangs in the balance.
Two years after KTVs were banned in Singapore for COVID-19 concerns, some adult KTV lounges are still flourishing underground in various forms. What takes place in them? Why are they so hard to quit?
Gender is the new weapon in the fight against terror. Since 2018, a shocking 70% of suicide bombings in Southeast Asia were perpetrated by women. What's driving them to these extreme acts of violence?
We go behind the scenes of India's scam call centers and meet the new breed of international scambaiters who are hacking their way into the surveillance systems to try and bring these scammers down.
Undercover Asia follows the 2022 Philippines Presidential Elections to investigate allegations that troll farms' are illegally being used to spread disinformation and falsehoods to influence voters.
A gold rush for sea cucumbers is driving a multimillion-dollar illicit trade in India and Sri Lanka.
2021
Thailand has the highest suicide rate in Southeast Asia and COVID-19 is making this situation even worse. But does the alarming statistic hide an underlying mental illness epidemic? Is the kingdom doing enough to stem the problem?
India leads the world in internet shutdowns. It holds the record for one of the longest digital shutdowns in a democracy. Why does the government disrupt the internet so often and who pays the price?
Dead cats and dogs washed up ashore in Hong Kong, terrorising coastal residents. How did the pets end up there? CNA’s Wei Du investigates the gripping mystery.
Malaysia's fast-growing ecommerce market for supplements is plagued by misleading claims and dubious products. What is behind this boom? And who pays the price of some of these exaggerated claims?
60% of female suicides in China stem from domestic violence. Deeply entwined with traditional values and made worse by the COVID-19 lockdowns, what does it take to stem the tide?
COVID-19 leads to a reckoning in the Philippines. The world’s top exporter of nurses is facing a shortage of nursing staff, exposing a broken system that underpays and overworks its nurses.
Mica, a mineral with reflective properties is what gives countless makeup products its iridescent shimmer. Behind the glitter is a controversial industry as mica is mined illegally in India.
An investigation into a growing trend in limb lengthening surgery in India, where certain men and women, who believe their height is ruining their lives, are having operations to grow taller.
In what is being called ‘The world’s biggest grave robbery’, more than 40 shipwrecks serving as mass graves to thousands of World War II soldiers have been illegally plundered by salvage crews.
