Myanmar returns first batch of Chinese scam workers to Thailand

MAE SOT, Thailand: Myanmar on Thursday handed over the first batch of hundreds of Chinese scam centre workers who are set to be repatriated through Thailand in the coming days.

Thousands of foreigners are expected to be freed and returned from scam compounds in Myanmar in the coming weeks, starting with 600 Chinese over the next three days.

A plane repatriating a first load of Chinese online scam centre workers later took off from Thailand on Thursday.

The specially-arranged China Southern Airlines flight took off from the western town of Mae Sot shortly after 11:30 am (0430 GMT). Several more flights are expected later in the day.

The compounds run by criminal gangs are staffed by foreigners, many of whom say they were trafficked and forced to work running internet scams swindling people around the world.

Many of those involved are Chinese and Beijing has stepped up pressure on Myanmar and Thailand to shut the centres down.

The Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), a militia allied with the Myanmar junta, has said it is preparing to deport 10,000 people linked to the compounds in areas it controls on the border with Thailand.

Two double-decker coaches delivered a first round of returning workers to the border post in the western Thai town of Mae Sot on Thursday morning, AFP journalists at the scene saw.

“First group of 50 Chinese have crossed to Thailand and headed to the airport. There will be three more batches (today), each with 50 Chinese,” a local border task force official told AFP.

China has put on 16 flights over the next three days to ferry 600 of its nationals home directly from Mae Sot.

Chinese security personnel are expected to accompany the returnees on the planes, and it is not clear what fate awaits them back in China.

The release follows several visits by China’s Public Security Assistant Minister Liu Zhongyi to Bangkok and the border in recent weeks to arrange the repatriation.

Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, including in Cambodia and the Philippines, as the value of the industry has boomed to billions of dollars a year.

Many workers say they were lured or tricked into the centres by promises of high-paying jobs before they were effectively held hostage, their passports taken from them while they were forced to commit online fraud.

Many have said they suffered beatings and other abuse at the hands of their supervisors, and AFP has interviewed numerous workers freed from centres with severe bruising and burns.