BANGKOK: Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand\u2019s army announced Thursday.
\nIn a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 people believed to have been victims of human trafficking after they were rescued and sent from Myanmar to Thailand.
\nMyanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have become known as havens for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
\nSuch scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and trapped in virtual slavery.
\nAn earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar was initiated in late 2023 after China expressed embarrassment and concern over illegal casinos and scam operations in Myanmar\u2019s northern Shan state along its border. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations, and an estimated 45,000 Chinese nationals suspected of involvement were repatriated.
\nThe army said that those rescued in the most recent operation came from 20 nationalities \u2014 with significant numbers from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan and China. There were also nationals of Indonesia, Nepal, Taiwan, Uganda, Laos, Brazil, Burundi, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana and India. They were sent across the border from Myanmar\u2019s Myawaddy district to Thailand\u2019s Tak province on Wednesday.
\nReports in Thai media said a Myanmar ethnic militia that controls the area where they were held, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, was responsible for freeing the workers and taking them to the border. Myanmar\u2019s military government exercises little control over frontier areas where ethnic minorities predominate.
\nSeveral ethnic militias are believed to be involved in criminal activities, including drug trafficking and protecting call-center scam operations.
\nThe Thai army statement said the rescued people will undergo questioning, and if determined to be victims of human trafficking, will enter a process of protection while waiting to be sent back to their countries.
\nDeputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said Wednesday that there might be many more scam workers waiting to be repatriated from Myanmar through Thailand, but that Thailand would only receive those that are ready to be taken back right away by their country of origin.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve made it clear that Thailand is not going to set up another shelter,\u201d he told reporters during a visit in Sa Kaeo province, which borders Cambodia. Thailand hosts nine refugee camps along the border holding more than 100,000 people, most from Myanmar\u2019s ethnic Karen minority.
\nPhumtham added that Thailand would also need to question them before sending them back, first is to make sure that they are victims of human trafficking, and also to get information that would help the police investigate the trafficking and scam problems.
\nOn a visit to China in early February, Thailand\u2019s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed along with China\u2019s leader Xi Jinping to crack down on the scam networks that plague Southeast Asia.
\nMany dramatic stories of Chinese people being lured to work in Bangkok only to be trafficked into a scam compound in Myanmar have surfaced. Chinese actor Wang Xing was a high-profile case but was quickly rescued after his tale spread on social media.
\nUnderlining Beijing\u2019s concern, Liu Zhongyi, China\u2019s Vice Minister of Public Security and Commissioner of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, made an official visit to Thailand last month and inspected the border area opposite where many of the Myanmar\u2019s scam centers are located.
\nJust ahead of Paetongtarn\u2019s visit to China, the Thai government issued an order to cut off electricity, Internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border with northern Thailand, citing national security and severe damage that the country has suffered from scam operations.
\nHer government is considering expanding this measure to Thailand\u2019s northeastern areas bordering Cambodia, said Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Thanathip Sawangsang, who explained that officials had already removed Internet cables that were installed illegally in the areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK: Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand\u2019s army announced Thursday. In a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77075,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77060\/revisions\/77075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}