Hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar's scam centres

Over 250 citizens from 20 different countries, who had been working in telecom fraud centers in Karen State, Myanmar, have been released by an ethnic armed organization and transferred to Thailand. These individuals have been received by the Thai military and are currently undergoing assessment to determine if they are victims of human trafficking. This comprehensive evaluation is crucial for providing appropriate support and protection.

Of those released, more than half are from African or Asian countries. Last week, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, pledging to crack down on the increasingly rampant scam centers in the Thai-Myanmar border region. The Thai government has cut off electricity and fuel supplies from the Thai side to these areas and tightened banking and visa regulations to prevent scam gangs from using Thailand as a transit point for personnel and funds. These measures reflect a strengthened commitment to combating transnational crime.

Some Thai opposition parliamentarians have been pushing for such action for the past two years. Typically, foreign laborers are lured to these scam centers with high-paying job offers, or in some cases, they are deceived into believing they will be working in Thailand in other jobs, rather than Myanmar. Scammers seek out laborers with language skills used by the target demographic of online scams, usually English and Chinese. This targeted recruitment highlights the sophisticated nature of these criminal operations.

These laborers are forced to engage in various cybercrime activities, including romance scams known as "pig butchering," cryptocurrency scams, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Some are willing to do these jobs, but others are forced to stay, with release only possible after their families pay hefty ransoms. Some escapees have described experiences of torture. The foreign laborers released this time were handed over by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), one of several armed factions controlling territory within Karen State. These armed groups have been accused of allowing scam gangs to operate under their protection and tolerating widespread abuse of trafficking victims forced to work in these locations. Since its independence in 1948, the Burmese government has been unable to extend its control over much of Karen State. The instability in the region exacerbates the problem.

On Tuesday, the Thai Department of Special Investigation (similar to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation) applied for arrest warrants for three additional commanders of the Karen National Army, including Saw Chit Thu, the Karen warlord who reached an agreement with a Chinese company in 2017 to build the Shwe Kokko New City, believed to be largely funded by scam activities. The BBC visited Shwe Kokko at the invitation of Yatai, the company building the city. Yatai stated that scam activities no longer exist in Shwe Kokko and erected huge billboards throughout the town declaring a ban on forced labor and demanding that "online businesses" leave. But locals told us that scam activities are still ongoing, and we also interviewed a laborer who had worked for one of the companies. Like the DKBA, Saw Chit Thu broke away from the main Karen insurgent group, the Karen National Union (KNU), in 1994 and allied himself with the Burmese military. Under pressure from Thailand and China, both Saw Chit Thu and the DKBA have stated that they are expelling scam operations from the areas under their control. A DKBA commander contacted a Thai member of parliament on Tuesday to arrange the transfer of these 260 laborers, including 221 men and 39 women from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Uganda, Laos, Burundi, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, India, Ghana, and Cambodia. The international scope of this issue underscores the need for global cooperation.