Photo/IllutrationA large number of foreigners forced to participate in fraud operations in Myanmar are handed over to Thailand across a border river on Feb. 12. (Provided by Thai police)

A Japanese youth recently rescued from the clutches of a fraud ring in Myanmar told investigators he went abroad after applying for a job that promised work overseas, Japanese investigative sources said Feb. 17.

Police suspect the high school student from Aichi Prefecture was recruited through “yami baito” (shady part-time jobs offered online) and forced to work as a scam artist.

The sources said the 16-year-old traveled to Myanmar via Thailand last December.

After he went missing, his family requested a search through the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok.

Earlier this month, the distraught teen managed to contact his family, saying he was being held by a Chinese criminal syndicate and forced to commit fraud in Myanmar.

This led Thai authorities to identify his location and take him into protective custody. The boy returned to Japan on Feb. 16, according to the sources.

The teen told investigators that numerous other Japanese were caught in the same situation. Police are working to confirm their identities.

A senior Thai police official told reporters in Bangkok on Feb. 17, “He was instructed to target elderly people in two Japanese prefectures with large elderly populations and deceive them in Japanese.”

The official said the boy had been forced to work since December in an area south of the town of Myawaddy, known as “KK Park 2,” a hub for Chinese criminal organizations.

The official added that the boy told investigators the Chinese fraud ring and a Japanese criminal group “were working together at the site.”

In January, Thai police rescued another 17-year-old Japanese high school student who had also been lured to Myawaddy.

The police arrested a 29-year-old Japanese man in connection with the matter, on suspicion he encouraged the student to travel to Thailand after meeting him through an online game.

According to the sources, the man was also under investigation by Osaka prefectural police for his alleged involvement, along with others, in the confinement of a man in his 20s in Osaka in August last year.

Myawaddy, a border town that is home to many casinos and under the control of an ethnic armed group with ties to Myanmar’s military, serves as a base for Chinese criminal organizations.

The area is a known hotspot for foreign nationals who are deceived into traveling to the area and then forced to commit fraud and other crimes.

On Feb. 17, Thai police held a briefing at their headquarters in Bangkok, gathering diplomats in charge of police affairs from 18 countries to request cooperation.

The Thai police official estimated that more than 10,000 foreigners, mostly Chinese followed by Indian nationals, are trapped in Myanmar’s border region.

Some of them are believed to be members of criminal groups.

Authorities are now working on how to bring them to Thailand so they can be returned to their home countries.

(This article was written by Toshinari Takahashi and Eishiro Takeishi.)