China begins repatriating more than 1,000 scam workers rescued from Myanmar
The rescued workers were taken across the border to Thailand and put on chartered flights to China.
An airlift carrying more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who had worked at online scam centres in eastern Myanmar has begun, after the rescued workers were taken across the border to Thailand and put on chartered flights to China.
Thailand, China and Myanmar have co-ordinated efforts over the past month to shut down the centres that scammed victims around the world out of billions of dollars through false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Hundreds of thousands of people from Southeast Asia and elsewhere are estimated to have worked at such centres in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, and many were recruited under false pretences for other jobs and found themselves trapped in virtual slavery.
Thai officials said recently that up to 10,000 people may be repatriated from Myanmar from the online scam centres.
Thai officials told reporters on Thursday that the rescued workers were being taken in batches of 50 across a bridge from Myanmar’s Myawaddy to Thailand’s Mae Sot, where they were being processed — including with biometric scans — and sent on by bus to Mae Sot’s airport.
There they were boarding China Southern Airlines planes, whose destination was shown by flight tracking websites as Jinghong in southwestern China’s Yunnan province.
Thai authorities are overseeing the evacuation and processing of scam centre workers from other nations. Last week, some 260 people from 20 nations, including many from Africa, crossed from Myanmar into Thai custody after they were reportedly rescued from such centres.
The organised repatriation of freed scam workers from nations other than China would begin on Sunday, Thai PBS reported.
Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on a visit to Beijing earlier this month told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Thailand would crack down on the scam networks.
Thailand wants to co-operate with China since reports about scam workers being trafficked through Thailand have circulated widely on Chinese social media. The Thai government and others fear it will discourage the lucrative market of inbound Chinese tourists.
The Border Guard Force in Myawaddy, a militia of the Karen ethnic minority that controls the area, has organised the repatriation of foreign workers from Myanmar. But critics have accused the group of involvement in the criminal activities by providing protection to the scam centres. It denies the accusations.
An earlier crackdown on scam centres in Myanmar happened in late 2023, after China expressed embarrassment and concern over illegal casinos and scam operations along its border in Myanmar’s northern Shan state.
Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations, and an estimated 45,000 Chinese nationals suspected of involvement were repatriated.
