THANK CHINA FOR THE CRACK DOWN
By AFP
February 14, 2025
Victims of scam centres in Myanmar walk in line after they were rescued and handed over to Thailand following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations. — © AFP
Sally JENSEN
At a scam compound in Myanmar, Filipina worker Pieta had just days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business — failing which she would be beaten or tortured with electric shocks.
Pieta was one of 260 people — many visibly injured or bruised — rescued from an illicit centre along the Myanmar border this week and handed over to Thailand, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations.
Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners, sometimes trafficked and forced to work, swindling people around the world in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.
Pieta, a pseudonym to protect her identity, thought she was accepting a job in Thailand that paid $1,500 a month when she left the Philippines six months ago.
Instead, she was forced to work gruelling shifts for no pay at the compound in Kyauk Khet, a village in Myanmar’s Karen state, scamming people in Europe and living in constant fear of punishment.
“If we didn’t reach the target, we were beaten up… (or given) electric shocks,” she told AFP from a holding centre in Phop Phra, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Thailand’s Mae Sot after the rescuees were taken by boat across a small border river on Wednesday.
“I’m just going to cry. Oh my God. I’m so happy… that I left that place,” she said, adding that enforced squats — sometimes up to 1,000 — were also meted out as punishment.
The 260 foreign nationals — among thousands allegedly lured into the notorious cyberscam centres with promises of high-paying jobs before they are effectively held hostage — came from over a dozen countries including Ethiopia, Brazil and Nepal.
– Signs of physical abuse –
AFP spoke to some of them under the condition of anonymity. Many bore signs of physical abuse, including one woman who had huge bruises on her left arm and thigh and said she had been electrocuted.
Liu, one of 10 Chinese nationals rescued, described gory methods his Chinese bosses inflicted as punishment.
He told AFP that he saw one worker having his face rubbed into a metal grate on the floor until he bled to death — a claim AFP is unable to verify.
“So many were beaten to death, it was so bloody,” he said.
Scam centres have proliferated across Southeast Asia in recent years, including the Philippines, where police this week rescued 34 Indonesians from a Manila compound.
Chinese supervisors there had allegedly stripped them of their passports and said they would be moved to a new site in Cambodia against their will.
Gilberto Cruz, of the Philippines’ anti-organised crime commission, told AFP Friday that about 21,000 Chinese nationals who had worked for now-banned offshore gaming centres continued to operate smaller-scale scam operations in the country.
Thai officials said the Kyauk Khet centre is also run by Chinese nationals and first appeared on the other side of the Moei River in 2019, although it is still under construction.
None of the returnees — exhausted and overwhelmed — told how they travelled, or were trafficked into the compound.
Other victims in the past have said that after arriving in Thailand, they were whisked across the border and forced to commit online fraud.
But Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, a senior police official, told local news outlet The Standard on Friday that in many instances, victims come to work in the centres voluntarily.
– Escape attempt –
“The majority are aware of what to expect, although some are deceived while still in their countries of origin,” he said.
For those who come out of choice, it is unlikely they fully understand the horror awaiting them.
Kokeb from Ethiopia said he and his fellow were workers were forced to toil for 17 to 18 hours a day, and many had their phones confiscated to prevent escape.
Still, two other Kenyans — who said they had been forced to defraud internet users in “rich countries” such as the United States — staged an escape with several others days before the handover, and were caught by a local militia.
The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) which controls the Kyauk Khet area — where the compound is located — claimed responsibility for extracting the workers.
General Saw Shwe Wah, DKBA’s second commander-in-chief said on Wednesday he was “relieved to have safely handed them over” to Thai authorities.
They and another Myanmar military group have said they will be releasing thousands more scam centre workers into Thailand in the coming weeks.
The returnees told how thousands were still being held in Kyauk Khet, but they are overjoyed to finally be returning home.
Liu left behind his wife in his hometown in Yunnan province when she was pregnant with his second child.
“I can’t wait to see my children,” he said.
Myanmar militia says ready to deport 10,000 cyber scam workers
By AFP
February 15, 2025
An ethnic militia in Myanmar said it is preparing to deport up to 10,000 people working in illegal cyber scam compounds along its border areas - Copyright AFP STR
A Myanmar ethnic militia said on Saturday it was preparing to deport 10,000 people linked to cyber scams in the area it controls to Thailand as part of a crackdown on the illicit compounds.
Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked and forced to work, swindling people around the world in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.
“We have announced to get rid of all scams from our soil. We are now implementing it,” Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) spokesman Major Naing Maung Zaw told AFP on Saturday.
“We have made a list and are prepared to transfer about 10,000 people (to Thailand),” he said.
The deportations would be carried out in groups of 500 per day.
AFP has contacted Thai authorities for comment.
The BGF has already sent 61 people across a border bridge to Thailand and are preparing to hand over “about 500 people including many different nationalities” daily, Naing Maung Zaw said.
The military task force responsible for border security in Thailand’s Tak province has coordinated with BGF leaders to receive 7,000 workers from scam compounds, Thai media reported on Saturday.
– Combating cyber scams –
BGF soldiers patrolled workplaces at Shwe Kokko in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township on Friday as part of a crackdown on alleged human trafficking, an AFP stringer saw.
Shwe Kokko, a scam compound located in an area under BGF control in Karen state, is a built-up city that stands out among the surrounding agricultural fields.
Cyber scam compounds often lure people from around the globe with promises of high-paying jobs but then effectively hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud or face severe punishment.
Authorities and militia groups in Myanmar and Thailand have made a show of raiding the centres, which have also been linked to drug smuggling and gambling, before releasing and repatriating the foreigners inside.
Thailand deported 10 Chinese nationals linked to the high-profile alleged kidnapping of an actor who was rescued from a cyber fraud centre in Myanmar, Thai police told AFP on Saturday.
The suspects were part of a gang operating in Myawaddy, south of Shwe Kokko, and were allegedly involved in defrauding Chinese citizens, according to a police statement.
More than 250 foreign nationals from over a dozen countries were also rescued from an online scam centre in Kyauk Khet, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Shwe Kokko, and were handed over to Thailand on Wednesday.
BGF Major General Saw Chit Thu released a statement on Thursday saying the militia were “identifying, arresting, and suppressing human traffickers and fraudsters who are illegally operating within investment projects in our region”.
burs-sjc/tc/pbt
No comments:
Post a Comment