'I need help': Thousands stranded after release from Myanmar scam centres

“I swear to God, I need help,” a man from Ethiopia identifying himself as Mike said softly over the phone. He stated that he and another 450 people were trapped inside a building in Myanmar, located near the border between Myanmar and Thailand. They are among thousands rescued from notorious scam compounds that have thrived in the border region for years. This operation appears to be the most severe action taken against the scam industry on the Thai-Myanmar border to date.

However, due to the slow process of assessing these individuals' identities and arranging their return to their respective countries, many are now stranded in temporary camps in Myanmar. The armed militia groups responsible for guarding them have very limited capacity to support so many people (over 7,000). One of the groups said they had stopped releasing people from the compounds because the transfer of people to Thailand was not happening fast enough.

According to the BBC, sanitary conditions in the camps are poor, food supplies are inadequate, and many of the rescued workers, like Mike, are in poor health. After working in a scam center for a year, he was frequently beaten and now suffers from panic attacks. He told us that they only get two very meager meals a day, there are only two toilets for 450 people, and now people are defecating everywhere.

Mike recalled that a year ago he was invited to work in Thailand, promised a well-paid job that only required good English language and typing skills. However, he found himself forced into a brutal system, working long hours every day to meet online scam targets set by Chinese bosses. "That was the worst experience of my life. I was certainly beaten. But believe me, I've seen others suffer worse."

It is estimated that, like Mike, around 100,000 people have been lured to work in scam operations on the Thai-Myanmar border, most of which are run by Chinese scam and gambling gangs who exploit the lawlessness of this area of Myanmar. Despite shocking accounts of abuse from escapees in the past, thousands of people are still being lured from around the world by promises of high pay, due to the lack of job opportunities.

Many scam victims come from China, which has taken action to shut down scam operations along its border with Myanmar. But until this year, China and Thailand had not taken much action on the Thai-Myanmar border. Under pressure from the Thai government, electricity and telecommunications connections to the border compounds have been cut off, and bank access for scam gangs has been restricted, while arrest warrants have been issued for some militia leaders protecting the scam operations.

Ariyan, a young man from Bangladesh, returned to Thailand to try to help 17 friends who are still trapped there. He said he made a promise to himself to do so after a difficult escape from a notorious scam center last October. He showed us a short, shaky video of the compound where he was held, which is still under construction in a remote, forested valley. He recalled the brutal treatment he and his friends suffered at the hands of their Chinese bosses. "They set us a target every week, $5,000. If we didn't reach it, they would give us two electric shocks. Or lock us in a dark room with no windows. But if we made a lot of money, they would be very happy."

Ariyan had to approach men in the Middle East, luring them to transfer funds into fictitious investments. Using artificial intelligence, the scammers made him appear on screen as an attractive young woman and altered his voice. He said he hated doing it. He remembers one man who was willing to sell his wife's jewelry to fund the fake investment, and he wished he could have warned him. But he said the bosses monitored all their calls.

Earlier this month, a group of 260 released workers crossed the Mekong River on rafts. About 621 Chinese citizens flew directly back to China on chartered flights under police escort. Apart from that, the transfer of released workers to Thailand seems to have stalled. The problem is that they come from many different countries, some of which do little to help their people return home. Of the first 260 to arrive, about 130 were from Ethiopia, which does not have an embassy in Bangkok.

The BBC was told that some African countries will only arrange for their people to return home if someone else pays the costs. Most of the released workers have nothing; even their passports have been withheld by the compound bosses. Thailand is concerned about taking in thousands of people and then having to care for them indefinitely. It also wants to screen them to identify which are genuine victims of trafficking and which may have committed crimes, but lacks the capacity to process such a large number of people.

Different departments and agencies, including the military, are involved in resolving the problem and must agree on who does what. To make matters worse, several senior police and immigration officials have been removed from their posts for alleged involvement in the scam operations. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in Bangkok on Tuesday: "If this problem is not resolved, we will not stop trying - we must take it seriously." But she was referring to the broader problem of scam operations, not the growing humanitarian crisis for released workers.

"Unfortunately, we seem to be at a standstill," said Australian Judah Tana, who runs an NGO that has been helping trafficking victims from scam centers for years. "We're hearing disturbing information about the lack of sanitation and toilets. Many of the 260 who have come over have been screened for tuberculosis and tested positive. We're hearing from people still inside that people are coughing up blood. They're happy to be free from the scam compounds, but our concern is that we're not acting fast enough."

Thailand now appears ready to take in 94 Indonesians, as their embassy has been pushing for their release for days and has booked flights to Indonesia for them. But that still leaves more than 7,000 people inside Myanmar, uncertain of what will happen next. Mike told me that he and many others fear that if they cannot enter Thailand soon, the DKBA may hand them back to the scam bosses, who may punish them for trying to leave.

He said that on Wednesday night, his panic attacks and breathing became so bad that they took him to the hospital. "I just want to go home," he said over the phone. "I just want to go back to my country. That's all I'm asking for."