A 2025 study by Panthera, the wild cat conservation organisation, the Jeffrey Sachs Center at Sunway University, and ZSL, exposed a nexus between the lucrative illegal trade in tiger parts, and Human Trafficking and Forced Labour. The research identified key roles within these networks: poachers who hunt the animals, transporters who move the products, brokers who manage logistics for Vietnamese workers in Malaysia, traders who buy and sell wildlife products, and end consumers. According to the researchers, most tiger poachers operating in Malaysia originate from Vietnam's Quang Binh province, a poor, rural area vulnerable to climate shocks with limited employment opportunities. These individuals, skilled in bushcraft, often enter the illegal wildlife trade due to economic desperation. Many plunge their families into debt to cover travel costs to Malaysia, then accumulate additional living expenses while there. Research calculations indicate it takes approximately three months of high-risk forest expeditions before poachers break even financially. Network managers frequently confiscate the poachers' travel documents and identification, trapping them in a cycle of debt that incentivises more killings and creates conditions of indentured labour.