Thousands working in cyber-scam centres rescued from Myanmar as Thailand launches crackdown

Thousands of persons who were forced to work in cyber-scam call centres in Myanmar were rescued in recent weeks as authorities in Thailand launched a crackdown on such establishments, The Guardian reported.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on February 19 that about 7,000 persons have been rescued from illegal call centres in Myanmar and are waiting to be brought across the border to Thailand.

The Thai Police said that they were preparing to receive about 10,000 foreigners rescued from the centres.

In the Cambodian city of Poipet too, Thai authorities halted cross-border telecommunication services to suspected scam call centres, Camboja News reported. This sparked a dispute with Cambodian law enforcement officials, who said that Thailand’s crackdown was a one-sided action rather than a collaboration with local authorities.

Thailand began acting against the centres after a 22-year-old Chinese actor was abducted after being scammed through a call. The actor was abducted after he arrived in Thailand for what he thought was a casting meeting with film producers.

Earlier this week, Scroll published a series of extensive reports about Chinese crime syndicates that run cyber crime centres from Southeast Asia, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. These highly sophisticated “scam compounds” are staffed with thousands of people, many of them from India, who are lured with fake job offers and then forced to…

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